St. Charles' new Gastroenterology practice is growing, both in size and scope — pun intended.

August saw the arrival of a new provider, Dr. Courtney Walker, who brings to the health system expertise in advanced therapeutic endoscopic ultrasound (EUS), a service that both expands the array of and reduces the invasiveness of treatments available to local patients.

Walker is the first provider in Central Oregon to offer EUS, which means local residents who could benefit from the procedure now have the option to get the care they need without driving to Portland or beyond.

“For patients, it should be much nicer to be able to stay here and get this procedure rather than having to cross over the mountains in the winter, for example,” she said. “Also, our hope is that referring providers will be able to get their patients in quicker rather than having to coordinate through Portland, especially when time is of the essence.”

Simply put, EUS is a procedure that uses an ultrasound mounted on an endoscope to examine and treat the gastrointestinal tract and nearby organs. Similar to an upper endoscopy, providers can go down into the intestinal tract, press the ultrasound up against the lining of the stomach or the small intestine and look through to the other side for abnormalities.

The big benefit for patients is that EUS is minimally invasive compared to other methods of examining areas deep within the abdominal cavity, including surgery or interventional radiology, Walker said.

“When you have to go through all these organs and intestines with a giant needle to try to reach something that’s maybe a centimeter or two in size, it’s a challenge,” she said. “With EUS, we’re already inside and the lymph node is just right next door, so we can easily sample tissue. It’s painless, for the most part. We get the biopsy and (the patient) is home an hour later.”

There are also a number of therapeutic possibilities with EUS. During the procedure, providers can administer injections to treat chronic pancreatitis or malignant pain related to pancreatic cancer; collect liver biopsies to learn more about abnormal liver function; determine the stage and spread of diseases like esophageal and rectal cancer and more.

Walker joins St. Charles’ new team of Gastroenterology providers, who see patients in Bend and Redmond for a variety of digestive and biliary organ conditions, including GERD, Barrett’s esophagus, swallowing issues, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, eosinophilic esophagitis, celiac disease and more.

The addition of EUS to the department’s list of specialized services is a win-win for both St. Charles and the community, Walker said.

“There are quite a few people out there who are going to benefit from this. I’m doing maybe three to five per week and that’s just a couple months in,” she said. “Our hope is that as more people know it’s available here, it will continue to grow and we’ll be able to help a lot of people across Central Oregon.”

Learn more about St. Charles Gastroenterology on our website.

If you hear the sound of a bell ringing in the St. Charles Cancer Center in Bend, that’s a signal to smile. The new bell – hung in the Infusion Room – is there for patients or family members to ring whenever they want to celebrate or recognize a meaningful milestone.

The new bell is a gift from Sam and Shane Coleman, both St. Charles caregivers. It’s a personal gesture for Sam, who completed her last round of chemotherapy for breast cancer last summer. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 39 after finding a lump during a self-exam. Sam underwent five months of chemotherapy and then had a mastectomy. The surgery went well – and she’s feeling optimistic as she has no signs of cancer in her lymph nodes or genetic markers.

“I was very lucky to go through chemotherapy and surgery and be done with it,” said Sam, who works in regulatory affairs and quality.

Sam says her work team has been amazing.  “I feel really really lucky to have been here. My work team has been super supportive and wonderful.”

Now, with two young children at home, Sam says she’s ready to focus on getting back to normal as much as possible. 

Sam isn’t sure where she first heard about the idea of ringing a bell after finishing cancer treatment – possibly a show or story she read. She wanted to ring a bell when she completed chemotherapy, but the Cancer Center didn’t have one. She and Shane offered to purchase one, so that future patients could experience a ringing moment of celebration together. Social Services Associate Linda Robson worked with the Colemans to find and order a 7-inch brass bell designed just for this purpose.

Last week, the bell was delivered and hung in the Infusion Room at the Cancer Center in Bend. Sam wants the bell to be for everyone and not just for individuals who had “beaten” cancer – because she knows that day doesn’t come for all patients. Her goal was to make ringing of the bell something every patient could experience.

“I want it to be really inclusive. If someone got great news after surgery – go ring the bell; if you survived the first round of chemo – go ring the bell. I want people to be able to celebrate big and small wins. I hope it’s a happy thing,” said Sam. “I want something that’s a little bit more meaningful for everyone, not just those of us who are lucky enough to be done. I hope people find their reason to ring it.”

Shane hopes that hearing the sound will bring people a feeling of hope – for caregivers, patients and families. “I hope families hear the bell and think, ‘Oh, that’s a happy thing.’”

Election Day is right around the corner, and many of you will have already voted by the time you read this. Personally, I love voting. I like how voting often forces me to weigh imperfect options, compelling me along the way to learn more on topics I might otherwise skip and to ask opinions from people I trust. Sometimes the choices are maddening, so I have to think hard on what I believe matters most. And without fail, voting also brings to mind gratitude for those who long ago fought for a right I hope never to take for granted.

As I complete my ballot this year, I’m also struck by how my concerns and hopes for health care in Central Oregon are influencing my thinking, and how the choices we make today will inevitably impact our future, often in unpredictable ways. So as you vote, I hope you too will think about how local, state and federal policies impact health care.

I realize health care may not be top of mind for you this cycle. It isn’t top of mind for most Oregonians. A recent opinion poll conducted by DHM Research showed that people believe the most important problem in Oregon is houselessness, followed by drugs, housing affordability, cost of living and crime.

Health care didn’t even make the list. But when you think about it, access to quality health care — particularly behavioral health care — impacts all of the issues listed above.

Many of us don’t think much about health care or our options for care until they are gone. We take for granted that hospitals will always be there when we have an accident, when pneumonia strikes or when it's time to welcome a new baby.

Increasingly, communities across the country are learning what happens when their local hospitals suddenly close their doors. Not only do they have to travel farther for care — incurring additional transportation and lodging expenses — they also feel the pain of tangential things like the hospital’s support of local youth programs, health fairs, flu shots and more. These challenges fall disproportionately on rural communities.

At St. Charles, more than 75% of what we are paid comes directly from Medicare and Medicaid (Oregon Health Plan), which means government reimbursements ultimately dictate the level of care and service we are able to provide. And those reimbursements are not keeping up with the inflationary costs of providing care. On average, the Oregon Health Plan pays hospitals 70 cents for every dollar of care provided. In 2022, this formula resulted in a $1.1 billion gap between what it costs Oregon hospitals to care for OHP members and how much those hospitals were paid for that care. Last year, 54% of Oregon hospitals lost money. I learned recently that nearly one out of three Oregonians now relies on OHP for insurance coverage. I’m proud to live in a state that values coverage so highly in principle, and at the same time I’m concerned we don’t follow up that commitment with a plan to pay for it. Well-intended government actions also add administrative cost and burden, further complicating and straining an already over-stressed system.

While St. Charles has had a modest financial rebound since the pandemic, we are not immune to the challenges all hospitals and physician practices face. Due to our geographic isolation, we are also increasingly worried about the small, private medical providers in the region — like The Center — who are having trouble retaining physicians and meeting the community’s needs for care.

We already know OHP reimbursement and administrative burden will be hot topics during the 2025 legislative session, and we are looking forward to working with our elected officials to address root causes and build a more sustainable model for hospitals and clinics in our state.

Which leads me back to the original intent of this month’s column — please vote. And please think about access to health care and the health of our communities as you do.

Sincerely, 
Steve

When babies are born, they are at risk of developing jaundice, which causes a yellow hue of the skin and can lead to serious issues. This is because their livers aren’t developed enough to break down bilirubin — a waste product from red blood cells — out of the body.

Historically, providers have treated many cases of neonatal jaundice pre-emptively because very high levels of bilirubin can be harmful to the brain. But not all babies need to undergo treatment, which can disrupt family bonding and breastfeeding, said Dr. Suzanne Mendez, St. Charles’ Medical Director of Pediatrics.

“There's a movement in medicine and pediatrics toward what we call ‘safely doing less’ or ‘choosing wisely,’ so that all the interventions and tests that we do on patients are warranted,” she said. “We don't want to unnecessarily burden patients with extra tests or treatments that they don't need, but we also want to be safe and make sure they are still getting the care they need.”

In 2022, the American Academy of Pediatrics sought to shift jaundice treatment practices and sponsored a new quality improvement project called Learning and Implementing Guidelines for Hyperbilirubinemia, or LIGHT for short. (Hyperbilirubinemia is a big word for jaundice.) The goal of the LIGHT project is to limit treatment to newborns who are truly at risk of complications.

The typical treatment for jaundice is blue-light therapy (phototherapy), where newborns are placed in a crib flooded with blue light that can break down bilirubin in the skin, allowing the body to flush it out. In addition to phototherapy, providers may administer IVs and will run tests with blood draws. While the treatment itself is relatively painless and benign, it means newborns spend more time in cribs and less time being held by family.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has acknowledged how disruptive that can be to babies and families alike and it put together updated guidelines and criteria for providers to gauge when babies need treatment and when it’s safe to let the condition clear on its own. More than 100 health care sites nationally, including St. Charles, were tapped to receive training on the new guidelines.

“We were excited to be selected to participate,” Mendez said.

After learning about the new guidelines, providers spent the next year implementing them, then compared data on jaundice treatments from a year before and a year after the LIGHT project’s changes. St. Charles was recognized for its excellent work with two “HighLIGHT” awards: One for limiting necessary treatment to babies above a certain risk threshold, and another for not using unnecessary blood tests post-treatment for babies who received phototherapy.

Another way St. Charles excelled in jaundice treatment was by using a non-invasive screening tool, a skin meter that measures bilirubin. By using the tool, providers reduced the number of babies receiving jaundice-related blood work by 70%, Mendez said.

The Pediatrics Department will continue to integrate the new guidelines and is reviewing data through July 2024 to see how the project has been sustained.

“It's always a balance,” Mendez said. “We want to make sure we keep babies safe, but we don't want to subject every baby to phototherapy, if we can help it.”

If you’ve ever been to St. Charles’ Bend South Family Care clinic, chances are you’ve at least seen and maybe met Mark Welch, a patient service representative there for about eight years.

He’s hard to miss, in part because he’s good at his job.

“When we’d been open about a year (clinic manager) Daggi Stafford came to me and said, ‘You know, you’re the face of this place. You keep smiling and doing what you’re doing out there,’” he said. “And that’s what I’ve done.”

He’s also a veteran of the United States Navy, where he served for 20 years on submarines patrolling the Pacific Ocean. He’d go weeks at a time without seeing sunshine, so when it came time to settle down, he wanted to go somewhere “where the seasons change and the people are friendly,” he said.

He found it in Central Oregon.

“One of the things I really enjoy here is that you’re close to all kinds of outdoor opportunities — from the beach and the mountains, fishing, skiing, hiking, the middle of the desert,” Welch said. “You’re four hours from anything!”

As you can probably tell, he’s young at heart, too. Which is why it took him about 10 years after leaving the military to realize he was a veteran.

“Veterans were those guys in World War II,” he joked. “They were recognizing veterans at an event and my wife poked me and told me to stand up. That’s when it finally hit me that I was a veteran.”

Welch says working in patient access at St. Charles is his second favorite job ever. At the top of that list: Machinist mate and engineering laboratory technician on Naval submarines, which essentially means he was the on-board nuclear chemist and radiation specialist. He also earned his “Dolphins” — a qualification pin given to those with the ability to operate every system on the ship.

“We’d go out for weeks or even months at a time, and if somebody got injured, everybody was able to step up and do anybody else’s job,” he said. “So when you went to sleep after your shift, you had full trust that the guy who was awake was going to save your life if needed.”

When his submarine would dock for a while, Welch had a chance to visit a number of different countries, where he would skip the bars and other entertainment offered near the port and head into the adjacent neighborhoods to learn about the local culture. Ever since he was a kid in a family that moved around a lot — 17 different schools from Kindergarten to 6th grade, he said — Welch has had a curious mind and an affinity for meeting new people.

“I came home from a new school one time and my mom said, ‘Did you make any new friends?’” he said. “I said, ‘Well, they’re the same old friends with new faces.’”

That’s an approach he carries through to his current job at the clinic.

“At the front desk, I figure when somebody's coming in that front door and they’re worried about their daughter or they’re low on gas or they have a bill to pay or whatever, it’s my job to get a smile on their face and make them feel better,” he said. “That way, when you get in front of the doctor, you can talk about why you’re here and not all those other problems you’ve got.”

He continued: “This is probably the first job where I love to get up in the morning because I know I'm coming to work to make a difference in somebody's day.”

With Veterans Day on the horizon, however, Welch is also thinking about the job he used to have — and that millions of others had, and still have, too.

“Veterans Day is the day I get to say thank you to my fellow veterans for being willing to write a check for these United States (and) for their sacrifice for their country, including being willing to give their life,” he said. “And to know that no matter what branch we all served in we always had each other's back. I was and am a part of the greatest military on our planet.”

The arrival of fellowship-trained surgeon Dr. Neil O’Kelly means breast cancer patients in Central Oregon now have the option of undergoing breast reconstructive surgery at St. Charles — and getting the care they need closer to home.

Dr. Linyee Chang, senior medical director of Cancer Services at St. Charles, says the arrival of O’Kelly is a milestone worth celebrating.

“Bringing Dr. O’Kelly to the Cancer Center shows our commitment to serving breast cancer patients in our community. We are thrilled to have such a well-trained, exceptional surgeon join us to help complete this incredible team,” said Dr. Chang. “I want our community to know that they can come to us for all things breast cancer — this is our area of expertise.”

O’Kelly’s arrival late last summer is the latest point of growth for the breast cancer program, which now includes early detection, genetic counseling, medical oncology, radiation oncology, a high-risk clinic and more. Breast cancer is the most common kind of cancer in Central Oregon, and St. Chares cares for about 200 patients every year.

The team will continue to grow to serve the community’s needs with the opening of the St. Charles Cancer Center in Redmond in 2026, where St. Charles will also offer a full complement of breast cancer services. Expansion of clinical trial options is also in the works, which will ultimately lead to a launch of the St. Charles Cancer Institute next year.

Dr. Caitlyn Truong, a fellowship-trained breast surgeon, joined the St. Charles team more than a year ago to support patients needing mastectomies and tumor removal surgeries. O’Kelly and Truong now work hand-in-hand — they even share an office — to support breast cancer patients who need surgery. After the cancer is removed, O’Kelly performs the reconstruction, a service that is in high demand. Prior to O’Kelly’s arrival, it was common for patients to travel out of the area for reconstructive surgery.

Kim Brinson, a 39-year-old breast cancer patient from Redmond, was “very grateful to have a reconstructive surgeon” in Central Oregon, she said. Brinson found a lump in her breast during a self-exam and ended up needing a mastectomy. She worked with O’Kelly to determine her options and ultimately underwent a double mastectomy and then a bilateral DIEP flap reconstruction.

O’Kelly says the reconstruction is a delicate surgery, in which he uses abdominal tissue to reconstruct a patient’s breasts.

“I would hate to travel for surgery,” said Brinson. “Having access in the area is amazing. O’Kelly is warm and caring and everything I would hope for in a doctor.”

She says the surgery removed her cancer with clean margins and she’s hopeful to not need any more treatment, so she can focus on spending time with her husband and two kids.

“I’m definitely feeling much better and am feeling relieved and ready to get back to regular life,” said Brinson.

The need in the community is one of the reasons that O’Kelly wanted to come to Central Oregon, after having studied at Johns Hopkins University for a microsurgery fellowship. “It’s hard to imagine having to travel out of state, while you are battling cancer, to have access to breast reconstruction," he said. "That’s a challenging path and I’m hopeful that people will find it a comfort and relief in having options closer to home.”

O’Kelly found his passion for plastic surgery during a rotation as a medical student at Georgetown University. “I like the wide array of surgeries that could be performed, especially with reconstruction.”

He quickly became interested in breast reconstruction specifically when he realized the powerful, positive impact his work could have on breast cancer patients.

“It gives us an opportunity to help the patient by restoring form after the removal of tissue to combat cancer. I am able to really help someone with a medical problem,” said O’Kelly. “A mastectomy or lumpectomy can be very challenging for patients to go through and breast reconstruction offers patients (a chance to) restore their self-image, which can have a big impact on quality of life after cancer. These reconstruction surgeries can have tremendous value for patients.”

If a woman chooses to undergo a mastectomy and desires reconstruction, she has many options including implant-based, tissue flap or free flap using microsurgical reconstruction with tissue from a patient’s body, often the abdomen. O’Kelly can perform all of these options and says it’s a partnership between the patient and surgeon to determine an individualized approach based on goals and preferences.

“It’s an extremely personal choice and it’s important to be able to offer all of the different options so that patients can select what will make them happiest in the long run,” said O’Kelly.

He also said he enjoys working alongside Truong and the team at the Cancer Center.

“Dr. Chang has built an amazing team of doctors in the center, who are very knowledgeable," he said. "Every single caregiver I’ve worked with has been wonderful.”

The plan is to treat several breast cancer patients per week in the Operating Room.

“There’s a tremendous need in the community," said O'Kelly, "and we are going to get busier and busier over time.”

Everywhere you look, you’ll find evidence that fall is upon us.

Kids are back in school. Football is on TV. Evenings are getting chilly — it’s time to break out that favorite puffy coat!

In the world of health care, fall also means the onset of what we used to call flu season, and now call respiratory illness season. Flu, COVID-19 and RSV are all common in our region, and each of them can cause serious illness that will wreck that camping weekend or ski vacation or holiday gathering or overseas trip you’ve been planning.

Don’t let that happen. Protect yourself, protect your family and friends and protect your fun times by getting vaccinated.

This year, safe and effective vaccines designed to prevent serious cases of flu, COVID and RSV are available. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control is encouraging everyone 6 months old and older to get vaccinated against flu and COVID-19 by the end of October, and to talk to their primary care physician about whether they should get the RSV vaccine. (Generally speaking, RSV vaccines are recommended for people 60 and older, as well as pregnant people.)

At St. Charles, our Family Care and Urgent Care clinics will begin administering flu and COVID vaccines to patients on Oct. 1. You can get more information on our Vaccines page.

Vaccines do not always prevent illness, but they can curtail how sick you get if you are infected. And when you curtail how sick you get, you also likely reduce visits to doctor’s offices, missed work days and missed school days for kids. Flu and COVID are more than just illnesses — they’ll disrupt your whole life for a while!

Getting vaccinated is also especially important for people over the age of 65, pregnant people and people with underlying health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, obesity or a weakened immune system. If this is you, you are at a higher risk of developing serious flu complications, which can lead to hospitalization or even death.

Last but not least, you can do other things to stay healthy this respiratory illness season: Wash your hands. Eat well and get good sleep. Avoid close contact with people who are sick. Wear a mask in crowds, if you so choose. If you do get sick, please stay home.

And remember: Vaccines remain the safest way to build immunity from a virus and our best protection against serious respiratory illness.

Stay healthy out there!

Sincerely,
Steve

A spontaneous response to an ad in the newspaper turned into a cherished 25-year family tradition for Teresa Porraz and her family.

When Grace Porraz saw the ad in 2000 for a new charity event called the Heaven Can Wait 5K to support breast cancer patients and survivors, she thought it could be a fun activity to do with her mother-in-law Teresa, who had recently recovered from breast cancer. The fundraiser, now put on by St. Charles Foundation, wasn’t something Teresa would normally do, but she decided to participate to support and celebrate other survivors. She didn’t anticipate how important the walk would become to her life personally.

"We did that first walk and she was so proud that she had completed it after all the scary health stuff that she had been through,” said Grace. "When we saw that it came around again the next year we said ‘Yeah, this is going to be our thing, we’re going to do this every time.’”

For 25 years, Teresa and Grace have never missed a race, even through a second bout with breast cancer and the Covid-19 pandemic. Teresa’s favorite part of each race is collecting her commemorative pin and taking part in the survivor photo, each one a meaningful symbol of another year seeing her grandchildren grow up, another year of her health and hope for the future. Teresa’s team has grown over the years as well, as more family members joined in on the tradition and more grandchildren were born, all walking to love and support Teresa, who Grace calls ‘the heart of our family.’

This year's walk will be especially meaningful for the family, not only as it marks the 25th anniversary of Heaven Can Wait, but also as Teresa, 72, was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 liver cancer. For the first time they will be walking as a team called For Teresa, a name that going forward will honor and celebrate Teresa and her legacy long into the future.

“This year will be a true celebration of what Teresa means to us and the role this walk has played within our family,” said Grace. “It’s our way of letting her know that it doesn't stop here - we’re still going to keep supporting a cause that is very close to her heart and a part of her life for so long.”

Despite multiple cancer diagnoses, Grace says that Teresa’s strength is her determination to never see herself as a victim or feel sorry for herself. “She has things she wants to see and survive and live for; she’s never let cancer stop her life. She's always just taking it one day at a time.”

For several years Teresa, who lives in Bend, has served as a medical interpreter for Spanish speaking patients in Central Oregon, where she often shares her story and offers encouragement to the cancer patients she interprets for, in the hopes that it lets them know that they are not alone and that cancer does not have to bring their lives to a halt.  

“I want to tell other survivors and cancer patients to find your thing that you can live for and focus on," said Teresa. "Remember that your family and loved ones want you here, that’s enough reason to continue fighting. Don’t let that diagnosis define you.”

On a sunny Wednesday morning in late June, dozens of local elected officials, St. Charles board members, community leaders, health care professionals, cancer survivors and interested citizens gathered on a vacant parcel south of our Redmond hospital to ceremonially break ground on a new St. Charles Cancer Center.

It was a really neat event. Attendees could walk the footprint of the new building and read about the different services that will be provided. Of course, some of us lined up and symbolically stuck a bunch of shovels into dirt. Most importantly, we had a chance to mingle and talk, face to face, with key stakeholders not only in this project, but in the future of cancer care in Central Oregon.

Also, all in attendance were invited to write meaningful words — “hope” or “healing,” for example, or the name of a loved one affected by cancer – on a smooth stone about the size of a golf ball. Those stones were collected at the end of the event and will be incorporated into a permanent art installation inside the cancer center.

I was holding my stone in my hand and speaking to the crowd when I got choked up. It has been 40 years since my mother died of cancer. Grief is a fickle friend. On that sunny Wednesday morning, I just happened to be standing on a stage and holding a microphone when the feeling hit me. I know I am not alone — that almost all of us know someone whose life has been affected by cancer. I was touched by how many guests approached me afterwards and shared their uplifting and inspiring stories.

Healing and recovery take time, for survivors and for families. Creating healing places and supporting excellence in cancer care is a critical role St. Charles plays in our growing region. The new facility will be a major component of that effort, serving up to 300 cancer patients every day. I’m excited to see the project complete and to open our new facility. Yes, mom would be proud.

Which reminds me: St. Charles Foundation’s annual Heaven Can Wait 5K run/walk is happening in Redmond again this year, on Sunday, Oct. 6. This is the 25th year of the event, which raises money for Sara’s Project, a fund of the foundation that provides education, early detection and support services to ease the challenges of breast cancer for people in Central and Eastern Oregon.

It’s a fun time for a great cause. And this year, in honor of Heaven Can Wait’s 25th year, organizers are hoping to raise an additional $25,000. So please visit HeavenCanWait.org today to learn more about the event and sign up to participate.

Thanks, as always, for reading.

Sincerely,
Steve

For more than 20 years, St. Charles’ bariatrics program has been consistently recognized for its high quality of care, commitment to improvement and dedication to safety.

And that’s not changing, even as new providers join the team – bringing with them openings for new patients, it should be noted.

“This is a great example of teamwork across practices, because I think we’re really all just focused on making sure the quality measures that we track never dip below where they’re supposed to be,” said Dr. Stephen Archer, a Summit Health surgeon who is also employed by St. Charles as medical director of the program. “It’s an arrangement that has worked well over the years, to the benefit of the community.”

Bariatrics is the study and treatment of obesity, and bariatric surgery is the most effective treatment for obesity “by far,” Archer said.

“It changes the anatomy of the stomach to help patients have different sensations of being full or hungry,” he said. “That can lead to prolonged and sustained weight loss of 20% to 30% of their total body weight, so a 300-pound person could expect to lose 100 pounds in the first year, for instance.”

Archer has been doing bariatric surgery at St. Charles since the early 2000s. For that entire time, the program has maintained what’s known as Comprehensive Center accreditation from the American College of Surgeons and the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, which work together to advance safe, high-quality bariatric surgical care.

“(Accreditation) formally acknowledges your commitment to providing and supporting quality improvement and patient safety efforts for metabolic and bariatric surgery patients,” according to the organizations. “As an accredited program you have demonstrated that your center meets the needs of your patients by providing multidisciplinary, high-quality, patient-centered care.”

For Archer, the recognition is not just a validation of the bariatrics team’s efforts, it’s also a strong indicator of sustained quality within the program and safety for potential patients.

“We’re evaluated through an on-site visit every three years, where they make sure the hospital has the right protocols, equipment, staffing and education in place, and that we are monitoring the quality of care patients receive,” Archer said. “They use stringent criteria and we’ve always passed with flying colors, so there’s reason to believe that St. Charles is as safe as anywhere else in the country for bariatric surgery. That’s a great accomplishment.”

The program is growing, too, with the addition of two new surgeons in the past year, both of whom are actively taking on new patients:

• Dr. Randy Kjorstad, who specializes in minimally invasive and robotic approaches to surgery, including bariatrics.
• Dr. Shaan Akhtar, a board-certified general surgeon and a fellowship-trained minimally invasive, robotic and bariatric surgeon.

To make an appointment, ask questions or learn more about your weight-loss options, visit our website, fill out the “Contact our bariatric team” form or call 541-548-7761.