Health Care

Laguna Beach Community Clinic supporters met the $10,000 challenge issued by resident Ron Beasley and clinic President Dr. Pam Lawrence at the annual Cinco de Mayo fundraiser. Lawrence and Beasley kicked in $5,000 each, and guests responded with donations of $8,000 at the event, followed by email pledges and snail mail checks for an estimated total of $60,000, according to Monica Prado , clinic development director. Mayor Jane Egly was the first to respond to the challenge.

Laguna Beach resident Sadiq Tawfiq’s heart is still in his native Afghanistan, a country devastated by decades of war and destruction. Through his Afghan Amity Society, Tawfiq is raising money to build a hospital in the city where he was born. “When I traveled to Afghanistan after 24 years, I realized that the country is ruined and destroyed and is not the country that I used to know before I left,” he said. “People are desperate for everything — education, health, schools, hospitals.

Suzie Harrison Typically when the Laguna Beach Community Clinic is mentioned, stories begin to pour out about what a godsend it has been during times of financial strife or when health insurance isn't possible -- that it has been an essential source for health care since it opened its doors in 1970. A resident of Laguna for more than 21 years, Katie Wingfield, said the clinic saved her life. The former artist said she was working on a portrait of an actor when she suffered a brain aneurysm.

Did you know that folks working at a minimum wage or on unemployment are paying taxes that pay for social security, Medicare, veterans benefits (there are plenty of them collecting benefits even if they had desk jobs and never were in the line of fire) and for the bonuses and perks being paid to the idiots who caused the Wall Street debacle and ran companies into the ground with their excessive salaries and perks? There are folks whose employers don?t provide health-care benefits, or even if their employers did, they cannot afford to buy it for themselves or their children.

Democrats running for office in November's election presented their platforms on health care, financial and education reform to a group of more than 30 people at the Unitarian Fellowship church in Laguna Beach on Wednesday. Each candidate had 20 minutes to speak and take questions from the audience at the event hosted by the Laguna Beach Democratic Club. Robert Rush is running for the 74th Assembly District, which includes Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine and Huntington Beach, against incumbent Assemblyman Allan Mansoor and Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, both Republicans.

Seminar talks about health care directives The Susi Q Senior Center will present a free seminar titled ?Advance health care directives, what everyone should know,? at 2 p.m. March 28 at the center, 380 Third St. Advanced health care directives allow you to have legal control over your health care treatment in the event that you are unable to speak for yourself, providing an efficient and flexible format for planning your future health care. Attorney R. Lee Anderson will share his expertise explaining the legal terms and guiding the participants through the process of filling out the forms.

South Coast Medical Center was picketed this week by members of the carpenter?s union, which objects to the hiring practices for a San Diego County project associated with hospital owner Adventist Health. The union claims medical insurance benefits are not being provided for the workers on a senior housing project that is owned by Adventist Health, which also owns the medical center in South Laguna. ?The protest had nothing to do with South Coast Medical Center operations,?

Bent to lead physicians? academy Dr. Tom Bent, medical director and chief executive of the Laguna Beach Community Clinic, has been named president of the 7,000-member California Academy of Family Physicians, according to a news statement. His term began April 17. Bent is an associate clinical professor in the Department of Family Medicine at UC Irvine and serves on the Academy?s Committee on Continuing Professional Development. Bent said he believes the time is right for health-care reform.

Issues and concerns abound about the sale of South Coast Medical Center to Mission Hospital, but one thing is clear: Laguna Beach needs its own local hospital. The facility is vital to the community and is a hub of health care despite the difficulties for hospitals in general. Laguna Beach has had its own hospital for some 50 years. Its loss would be felt on many levels. Under Adventist Health, the hospital was seen as a money-loser, but it appears that was due to Adventist’s very costly way of operating, with high-paid on-site administrators and an “administrative fee” that turned out to be about the same as the hospital was “losing” every month.

David E. Kelly Some of us work eight hour days. We work five days per week, with a paid annual vacation. It wasn't always so in this country. Many have died to win these rights for American workers. Although law made the eight-hour work day mandatory, many factories in Chicago in May of 1886 continued to force people to work 10-, 12- and 14-hour days, in many cases without a day off. The laws favoring workers were not enforced. After a strike at that time, five of those workers who were involved in the infamous Haymarket Massacre were hung on the scaffold.

Laguna Beach Community Clinic supporters met the $10,000 challenge issued by resident Ron Beasley and clinic President Dr. Pam Lawrence at the annual Cinco de Mayo fundraiser. Lawrence and Beasley kicked in $5,000 each, and guests responded with donations of $8,000 at the event, followed by email pledges and snail mail checks for an estimated total of $60,000, according to Monica Prado , clinic development director. Mayor Jane Egly was the first to respond to the challenge.

Democrats running for office in November's election presented their platforms on health care, financial and education reform to a group of more than 30 people at the Unitarian Fellowship church in Laguna Beach on Wednesday. Each candidate had 20 minutes to speak and take questions from the audience at the event hosted by the Laguna Beach Democratic Club. Robert Rush is running for the 74th Assembly District, which includes Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine and Huntington Beach, against incumbent Assemblyman Allan Mansoor and Newport Beach City Councilwoman Leslie Daigle, both Republicans.

So your child has a fever, what do you do? It depends. It is important to note that a fever is the body's natural response to the presence of an infection, so don't panic. There is evidence to suggest that the body's immune system is enhanced by the presence of the fever. A temperature of 100.4 degrees or more is considered a fever regardless of age. So now what do you do? First, make your child comfortable with a weight-appropriate dose of acetaminophen and/or ibuprofen. Your local pharmacist will let you know how much to give.

The recent column written by David Hansen about Linda West-Conforti and her efforts to: "empower clients to take charge of their own health care" (and to help other individuals understand that there is a more natural approach to health) was most encouraging, ("Hansen: Bridging the medicine gap," Nov. 11). Many recognized authorities such as Deepak Chopra would agree, and in an article he expresses support for the idea that there is more to health than western medicine is addressing.

        On Sunday, a crowd of enthusiastic gardeners, friends and donors partied to the tunes of the Garden Band, consisting of Tom Joliet, Tony Bisson and Denise Bennett. Mayor Toni Iseman and Councilwoman Verna Rollinger joined in celebrating the completion of the lower portion of the garden. Now there are 53 raised planting beds, with the end of the fall harvest squashes and the promise of winter vegetables coming on. Recognized donors included Steve and Liza Stewart of Stewarts Landscape, Ruben Flores of Laguna Nursery, landscape architect Ann Christoph, and representatives of Butler Box and Stake and the South Coast Water District.

About 30 years ago as a U.S. Air Force medic working in intensive care units, I saw my share of illness and death. Even though I eventually got out of medicine, I have noticed many changes since then: •The way we do basic CPR has changed dramatically. •Once-sacred medicines have been outlawed. •Cardiac surgery is now almost an outpatient procedure. But one thing that hasn't changed is the near holy war between East and West. Shaman versus scientists. Herbalists versus pharmaceutical companies.

Students in the Laguna Beach Unified School District have some of the lowest vaccination rates in Orange County, says a state report. Just more than 2 in 10 students in the district have failed to get vaccinated, according to data analyzed by the Orange County Health Care Agency. The yearly assessment by the California Immunization Branch looks at kindergarten classes and reports immunization compliance. In 2007, the county reached an historic high, 93% compliance. The goal for the state is 95%. The most recent assessment, from 2010, reveals that countywide immunization coverage has dropped to 89%. FOR THE RECORD: [This corrects the percentage of countywide immunization coverage.]

Laguna Beach resident Sadiq Tawfiq’s heart is still in his native Afghanistan, a country devastated by decades of war and destruction. Through his Afghan Amity Society, Tawfiq is raising money to build a hospital in the city where he was born. “When I traveled to Afghanistan after 24 years, I realized that the country is ruined and destroyed and is not the country that I used to know before I left,” he said. “People are desperate for everything — education, health, schools, hospitals.

Caduceus Medical Group, a multi-specialty group serving Orange County from Laguna Beach, is revolutionizing the way doctors interact with patients via a new iPhone application, launched Jan. 12, that aims to enhance patient information and care on a level that no other practice in the nation has reached. “Access to care is the cornerstone of our practice philosophy,” Dr. Gregg DeNicola said. “Giving our patients mobile access is a perfect fit.” The free application allows patients to e-mail physicians, schedule doctor visits, request prescription refills and retrieve directions to the offices through the “Online Concierge Services,” and also provides direct links to twitter, short-cuts to the group’s web-based services including blogs, daily “Health News” features and weekly health-related quizzes that are “fun and informative.

The League of Women Voters of Laguna Beach held a town meeting on health-care reform Sept. 12. Invitations were sent to the chairs of both the Republican and Democratic clubs in Laguna, as well as to various other organizations. More than 70 people were in attendance. The objective of the meeting was to present factual information, in order to give those in attendance the opportunity to make informed decisions. The excellent speakers used their opportunity to clarify the various aspects of reform.