| St. Charles Health

Jamie E. Orlikoff, MA

James (Jamie) Orlikoff is president of Orlikoff & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm based in Chicago that specializes in health care governance, leadership, strategy, quality, safety and system development. He has served on the St. Charles Board of Directors since January 2018. Orlikoff holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in psychology. He is a national adviser on governance and leadership to the American Hospital Association. He completed 12 years on the board of Virginia Mason Health System in Seattle and during that time served as vice chairman of the board and chairman of the governance committee.

Reason for service: “I am very concerned about the future of rural health care in America, and am familiar with and committed to Lean. The opportunity to help St. Charles achieve its mission and use Lean to do so is very compelling to me.”

Steve Gordon, MD, MPP, FACP

Steve has more than three decades of diverse experience as a physician, educator, executive and board member. He has served in progressive leadership roles with medical groups, hospitals, integrated delivery systems, payers, and the public sector, complementing an earlier career in clinical medicine and post-graduate education. Most recently, Steve has worked nationally as a senior management and strategy consultant, including interim executive roles.

Steve was named President and CEO of St. Charles Health System in February 2023, after serving in the role on an interim basis for eight months. He joined the Board of Directors of St. Charles in 2014, has served on various policy and governance committees for the American Hospital Association, and in 2023 was re-elected to the Board of Directors for the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems after previous service earlier in his career.

Outside of health care, Steve was a trustee and board chair for the Catlin Gabel School in Portland, Oregon. He has three sons and enjoys cycling, skiing and cooking.

Steve trained as an internist and primary care physician at Massachusetts General Hospital after graduating from Harvard Medical School and Harvard College. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.

Reason for service: “The opportunity to collaborate with others in service to Central Oregon.”

Daniel F. Schuette, CLU, ChFC

Dan Schuette, a Prineville native, joined the board in 2007 after serving on the Pioneer Memorial Hospital board of directors and the St. Charles Planning and Development Committee. He served as the board chairman from 2015 to 2020. In addition to his service to St. Charles, Dan is also a Board Member of the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Services as well as a member of the American Hospital Association Council on Governance.

Reason for service: “I made a commitment to my deceased mother-in-law to do everything I could to make sure the citizens of Central Oregon had access to excellent medical care.”

St. Charles Board of Directors

Jon Bullock, Vice Chair

Ann E. Rhoads, Board Chair

Dr. Glenn Rodriguez

J. Corey Schmid

Dan Schuette

Requests for patient information

St. Charles has a responsibility to provide accurate information to the public in a way that is consistent with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and does not infringe upon patient privacy, professional medical ethics or patient care.

As long as the patient has not requested that information be withheld, we may release a one-word condition and location to individuals who inquire about the patient by name.

Patient conditions defined

Good: Vital signs such as pulse, temperature and blood pressure are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious, comfortable and there are no complications.
Fair: Vital signs are stable and within normal limits. Patient is conscious and alert although may be uncomfortable or in pain and may have minor complications.
Serious: Vital signs may be unstable or outside normal limits. The patient is acutely ill or injured and may have major complications.
Critical: Vital signs are unstable or outside normal limits. There are major complications. (Most patients in an intensive care unit are considered critical until ready to be moved to a regular nursing unit.)
"Stable" is NOT a condition.

More information for the news media is available on the Oregon Association of Hospitals and Health Systems website.

Media Requests

In order to expedite requests for interviews and information, please contact the health system's Public Information Officer on duty at 458-292-7287 or via email at [email protected].

Requests for Patient Information

Guidelines for reporting a story at a St. Charles facility

These standards have been established to protect patients’ privacy and to ensure federal HIPAA law is being followed. Members of the media who wish to conduct interviews/record video/take photos at a hospital, clinic or other St. Charles location (including parking areas at these properties) must be accompanied by a member of the St. Charles communication team. Most often, this will be PIO Alandra Johnson. Members of the media can conduct interviews, take photos or record video from the public sidewalk on the street in front of the facility, so long as patients, visitors and caregivers on the campus are not visible in any shots (this includes individuals in the parking lot, as well as those entering and exiting the facilities).

HIPAA Waiver

Trauma and acute care surgical services

Our Trauma and Acute Care team of surgeons serves nearly 1,500 trauma patients annually — around a quarter of which are pediatric — with one of the most extensive coverage areas in the continental U.S. spanning from the Columbia River gorge, east to Idaho and down into parts of Northern California. St. Charles Bend is the only Level II trauma center east of the Cascades, while St. Charles Redmond, St. Charles Prineville and St. Charles Madras all hold a Level IV trauma center designation.

Our services include definitive trauma care for severely injured patients with 24/7 support from the AirLink and LifeFlight Critical Care Transport helicopter and fixed-wing airplane, as well as ground ambulance service.

Where your healing begins

Our hospital-based, outpatient clinic provides the highest level of wound care and ostomy management. We serve patients with problematic and hard-to-heal wounds. Our clinic also provides ostomy care for patients with colostomy, ileostomy, urostomy, fistulas and leaking tube or drain sites. St. Charles Wound Care and Ostomy is a department of St. Charles Bend.

St. Charles Wound Care and Ostomy partners with multiple providers for patient care.

We see patients who have been referred by their physicians. Our experienced clinicians evaluate their wounds and then assign treatment options that best fit patients' needs.

Our wound care includes:

Acute and surgical wounds
Stasis ulcers
Arterial wounds
Pressure ulcers
Complex fistulas and tube management
Wound vacs and other negative pressure wound therapy products

Our ostomy care includes:

Stoma site selection and pre-op counseling
Post-operative education and product suggestion
Dietary counseling
Ostomy support group and ostomy visitor programs

Is bariatric surgery right for me?

Diet and exercise may be the healthiest, least invasive way to lose weight, but for so many with life-threatening conditions associated with obesity, this approach has repeatedly fallen short. When traditional methods have failed, weight-loss surgery, also called bariatric surgery, may be the only effective means to achieve permanent weight loss and improve health. Diseases found in the morbidly obese, such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea are often eliminated in the process.

Our objective at St. Charles is to use weight-loss surgery as one among many tools in your long-term journey towards achieving and maintaining a healthy weight and lifestyle, especially after weight loss surgery.

A comprehensive approach

At St. Charles, our multidisciplinary team is committed to comprehensive care when it comes to surgical weight loss. We address each patient as a whole person embarking on a lifelong path, rather than simply a surgical weight loss case. We've partnered with expert local bariatric surgeons specializing in education, support and post-surgical rehabilitative exercise programs, as well as specialists in weight loss management.

The St. Charles Bend Campus has continued to meet the rigorous requirements to maintain an Accredited Bariatric Center designation. Our bariatric surgeons perform laparoscopic and open surgeries, including gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy. Many insurance companies now cover these surgeries.

Is your body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 or greater than 35 with additional conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure?

Our program includes additional services to provide an integrated health team for our bariatric and metabolic surgery patients including physical therapy, expert nursing, physician extenders and social workers to deliver the highest level of care.

Contact us

St. Charles Heath System also offers bariatric informational and support classes in Bend and Redmond, as well as other weight loss programs. To learn more about your options, call our bariatric nurse navigator at 541-548-7761.

Bariatric Surgery Procedures

Sleeve Gastrectomy

Sleeve gastrectomy limits food intake by reducing the size of the stomach. A stapling device is used to divide the stomach vertically, leaving behind a thin vertical sleeve of stomach. Hormonal changes result in a decrease in hunger while the sleeve increases the feeling of being full since smaller portions of food can fit in the reduced stomach. The excised portion of the stomach is permanently removed.

Advantages:

Restricts the amount of food the stomach can hold
Induces rapid and significant weight loss that comparative studies find similar to that of the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass. Weight loss of greater than 50 percent for three to five years post surgery, and weight loss comparable to that of the bypass with maintenance of greater than 50 percent
Requires no foreign objects (gastric banding), and no bypass or re-routing of the food stream (gastric bypass)
Involves a relatively short hospital stay of approximately one to two days
Causes favorable changes in gut hormones that suppress hunger, reduce appetite and improve satiety

Disadvantages/Risks:

This is a non-reversible procedure
Has the potential for longterm vitamin deficiencies
Surgery risks include complications due to stomach stapling including bleeding, infection, blood clots, gastroesophageal reflex and other risks associated with bariatric surgery. Please speak with your surgeon about these and other risks in more detail

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Roux-EN-Y Gastric Bypass

Stapling is used to create a small, upper stomach pouch that restricts the amount of food that can be consumed. A portion of the small bowel is bypassed thus delaying food from mixing with the digestive juices to avoid complete calorie absorption. Weight loss is induced by hormonal changes that decrease hunger and increase the feeling of being full.

Advantages:

Average 77 percent reduction of excess body weight one year after surgery
Studies show that after 10 to 14 years, patients have maintained 60 percent reduction of excess body weight
Studies show that 96 percent of associated health problems studied were improved or resolved, including back pain, sleep apnea, high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes and depression
In most cases patients report an early sense of fullness, combined with a sense of satisfaction that reduces the desire to eat
Produces significant long-term weight loss (60 to 80 percent excess weight loss)
Restricts the amount of food that can be consumed
May lead to conditions that increase energy expenditure
Produces favorable changes in gut hormones that reduce appetite and enhance satiety
Typical maintenance of more than 50 percent excess weight loss

Disadvantages/Risks:

Poor absorption of iron and calcium
Chronic anemia due to vitamin B12 deficiency
Dumping syndrome can occur when too much sugar or large amounts of food are consumed
Bypassed portion of the stomach, duodenum and segments of the small intestine cannot be easily visualized using X-ray of endoscopy
Operative risks of bypass include bleeding, infection, blood clots and clots that go to the lung. Please speak with your surgeon to learn more details

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Biliopancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch (BPD/DS) Gastric Bypass

The Biliopancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch – abbreviated as BPD/DS – is a procedure with two components. First, a smaller, tubular stomach pouch is created by removing a portion of the stomach, very similar to the sleeve gastrectomy. Next, a large portion of the small intestine is bypassed.

The duodenum, or the first portion of the small intestine, is divided just past the outlet of the stomach. A segment of the distal (last portion) small intestine is then brought up and connected to the outlet of the newly created stomach, so that when the patient eats, the food goes through a newly created tubular stomach pouch and empties directly into the last segment of the small intestine. Roughly three-fourths of the small intestine is bypassed by the food stream.

The bypassed small intestine, which carries the bile and pancreatic enzymes that are necessary for the breakdown and absorption of protein and fat, is reconnected to the last portion of the small intestine so that they can eventually mix with the food stream. Similar to the other surgeries described above, the BPD/DS initially helps to reduce the amount of food that is consumed; however, over time this effect lessens and patients are able to eventually consume near “normal” amounts of food. Unlike the other procedures, there is a significant amount of small bowel that is bypassed by the food stream.

Additionally, the food does not mix with the bile and pancreatic enzymes until very far down the small intestine. This results in a significant decrease in the absorption of calories and nutrients (particularly protein and fat) as well as nutrients and vitamins dependent on fat for absorption (fat soluble vitamins and nutrients). Lastly, the BPD/DS, similar to the gastric bypass and sleeve gastrectomy, affects guts hormones in a manner that impacts hunger and satiety as well as blood sugar control. The BPD/DS is considered to be the most effective surgery for the treatment of diabetes among those that are described here.

Advantages

Results in greater weight loss than RYGB, LSG, or AGB, i.e. 60 – 70% percent excess weight loss or greater, at 5 year follow up
Allows patients to eventually eat near “normal” meals
Reduces the absorption of fat by 70 percent or more
Causes favorable changes in gut hormones to reduce appetite and improve satiety
Is the most effective against diabetes compared to RYGB, LSG, and AGB

Disadvantages

Has higher complication rates and risk for mortality than the AGB, LSG, and RYGB
Requires a longer hospital stay than the AGB or LSG
Has a greater potential to cause protein deficiencies and long-term deficiencies in a number of vitamin and minerals, i.e. iron, calcium, zinc, fat-soluble vitamins such as vitamin D
Compliance with follow-up visits and care and strict adherence to dietary and vitamin supplementation guidelines are critical to avoiding serious complications from protein and certain vitamin deficiencies

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Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation

Regence BlueDistinction Center+ Bariatric Surgery

Blue Distinction Centers (BDC) met overall quality measures for patient safety and outcomes, developed with input from the medical community. A Local Blue Plan may require additional criteria for providers located in its own service area; for details, contact your Local Blue Plan. Blue Distinction Centers+ (BDC+) also met cost measures that address consumers’ need for affordable healthcare. Each provider’s cost of care is evaluated using data from its Local Blue Plan. Providers in CA, ID, NY, PA, and WA may lie in two Local Blue Plans’ areas, resulting in two evaluations for cost of care; and their own Local Blue Plans decide whether one or both cost of care evaluation(s) must meet BDC+ national criteria. National criteria for BDC and BDC+ are displayed on www.bcbs.com. Individual outcomes may vary. For details on a provider’s in-network status or your own policy’s coverage, contact your Local Blue Plan and ask your provider before making an appointment. Neither Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association nor any Blue Plans are responsible for non-covered charges or other losses or damages resulting from Blue Distinction or other provider finder information or care received from Blue Distinction or other providers.

At St. Charles Surgical Specialists, our team of board-certified general surgeons provides evaluation and surgical treatment of a variety of conditions. We provide top-quality patient care to all of Central Oregon with clinics in Bend, Redmond and Madras.

Despite the term "general," our surgeons are highly skilled and experienced in many different surgical procedures. Dr. Nguyen is also fellowship-trained in colorectal surgery.

Our surgical services range from same-day procedures to those that require a limited stay in the hospital, including:

Appendix surgery
Bariatric surgery
Breast surgery and biopsy
Certain cancer surgeries
Colon and intestinal surgery
Colonoscopy and upper endoscopy
Esophageal pH and Manometry procedures
Gall bladder surgery
Hemorrhoid treatment
Hernia Repair
Lump and bump removal
Varicose vein treatment

St. Charles Surgical Specialists is excited to have robot-certified surgeons who can offer a new option for many surgical procedures with robot-assisted surgery, available in Bend and Redmond. The DaVinci surgical system from Intuitive Surgical allows our surgeons to perform minimally-invasive surgery with a greater range of motion over traditional laparascopic or open techniques. Ask your surgeon if this is right for you at your next appointment.

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