Dodgeball Tournament Saturday to raise funds for United Way

Brad Sherman from UPS was guest on KNEB's News Extra program Tuesday morning. 

Brad was on the program to promote the 2013 Dodgeball Tournament to raise money for the Our Lady of Guadalupe Food Pantry and the United Way of Western Nebraska. It will be held at the Prairie Winds Community Center in Bridgeport this Saturday, November 16th from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. 5 person teams $10 per person in 3 divisions, with Jr. High and under, High School, and Open. 

Cash prizes awarded to each division winner plus the winner of the "Last Man Standing" event. 

For information, call 308-250-9144, or email bdsherman@ups.com.

Big changes coming at Regional West

 Regional West Medical Center Wednesday announced an austere reorganization plan that includes cutting millions of dollars in expenses and the pending retirement of long-time president and CEO Dr. Todd Sorensen.

Sorensen says patient volume has declined five to six percent over the last 18 months, which along with future healthcare changes drove the decision to combine Regional West Physician Clinic and the hospital into one organization and the planned cutting of $20 million in expenses.

Sorensen says the hospital wants to make the cuts by the end of 2015. He says there will be no immediate layoffs or cuts in wages, but he noted efficiencies over time will likely lead over the next five to ten years to a reduction from the current 1,800 employees to 1,600 or possibly fewer workers.

Sorensen says the hospital will be eliminating duplications when combining the Physicians Clinic and the Hospital, which they plan to get done by April 1st of next year. Sorensen says implementation of an 18 month IT upgrade including a changeover in electronic medical records will also begin by April 1st, possibly saving as much as $4 million.

Sorensen will retire by the end of 2014. He says the transition will begin in the middle of next year with the hiring of a new Chief Operating officer who would then take over his responsibilities by the end of 2014.

Sorensen says retaining quality of service, patient safety and efficiencies will be the three values that will guide the hospital in their reorganization.

Hunters Helping the Hungry focus on Monday's News Extra

Roger Christensen was guest on Monday morning's News Extra program on KNEB. He was on to promote the Hunters Helping the Hungry program, which was created in April 2012 with the Nebraska Legislature's passage of LB928.

This donation-funded program provides ground venison to Nebraskans in need.  The Nebraska Game & Parks Commission accepts cash donations to the program and uses those funds to pay contracted meat processors to prepare and package ground venison from deer donated by hunters.  The processors contact the charitable organizations specified by the commission, who pick up and distribute the venison. Hunters do not pay a processing fee if their deer is donated to the program.

Legislation requires that all program costs be paid for only with donated funds, so the balance of donations received by early summer of each year are used to establish the budget for the following deer harvest seasons. A fair market processing price of $85 per deer carcass is offered to processors. Interested processors can apply to contract as Hunters Helping the Hungry program deer donation sites.

Processor contracts state how many donated deer they may accept from hunters, and once the quotas are met, no additional deer can be accepted under the program. Processors are asked to accept only whole deer that will likely yield at least 40 pounds of high quality ground venison. So some deer offered by hunters may not be accepted by the processors even if that processor has not yet met their quota.

By summer 2012, the commission received enough cash donations to budget processing for 271 deer through January 2013. In all, 188 hunters donated 213 deer, resulting in 11,536 pounds of venison distributed through sixteen different charitable organizations across the state. The dollars budgeted for processing venison in the first year that were not used due to unfulfilled quotas, will be added to the budget for the second year.

Many hunters were very generous; one out of every nine hunters who donated a deer, donated more than one. Landowner permits accounted for about one in five of all permits used to harvest donated deer, and one in eight permits used to donate deer were harvested from non-resident permits.

Diabetes Care Center to host Mini Pump Fair November 5th

Marcia Bauer and Mary Skiles were guests on KNEB's News Extra program Friday morning. 

They were on to promote the Regional West Physicians Clinic's free learning adventure on Tuesday, November 5th. 

The Diabetes Care Center's "Mini Pump Fair" will give patients an opportunity to learn about insulin pumps and how they work. Representatives from three major insulin pump manufacturers will be on hand to explain the features of their products. 

 

Anyone interested in learning about insulin pumps is invited to attend. The program will be offered free of charge, and will be from 6 to 8 p.m. at Regional West Medical Plaza South, Room 1202 on Tuesday, November 5th. 

All individuals with diabetes and family members are welcome to attend.  Diabetes Care Center community education classes are a supportive, informational resource for persons with diabetes, their families and friends.

For more information, call 308.630.2100.