4th Annual RAM Provides Care to 680 Area Residents

by Cathy St. Clair
News Editor  
  Patient care totaling $205,881 was provided to some 680 area residents this past weekend as the fourth annual Remote Area Medical (RAM) Expedition was held at Riverview.
  Approximately 375 area residents were awaiting the clinic opening Saturday morning at 6 a.m.
  Free medical check-ups were offered first come, first serve to the uninsured, underinsured, unemployed and those unable to afford health care and provided adults and children with free dental cleanings, fillings and extractions; eye exams and prescription eye glasses; and hearing exams. Physicals, cancer screenings, immunizations for children, blood work and pulmonary function testing, mammograms, pap smears and breast and pelvic exams were also offered.
  According to Sandy Stiltner, one of the organizers of the annual event, services rendered resulted in 1,695 patient visits, up from 1,224 last year.
  Services were provided by volunteer doctors, nurses, dentists, ophthalmologists, optometrists, dental hygienists, nurse practitioners and other trained health care professionals, as well as members of the community, who assisted in a variety of ways as support for the professional staff on hand. The total number of volunteers was up this year, at 503, Stiltner said.
  Additionally, the percentage of children benefitting from the services offered was also up.
  According to a recap of services, during this year's two-day event, some 33 mammograms were given; 1,007 general medicine visits were held; 17 eye tests were conducted; 266 eye tests were conducted which resulted in glasses; and 372 dental service patients were examined, resulting in 1,149 extractions; 705 fillings; 225 cleanings and 18 exams-only.
  Comparing this year's statistics with last year's, the number of people receiving general medicine check-ups was more than double, while the number of eye tests resulting in glasses was up and the number of those receiving dental services was down slightly. However of those receiving dental services, twice as many had their teeth cleaned and the number of fillings was up, while the number of extractions was down.

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Supervisor Criticizes County Hiring Practice

   County hiring practices came under fire last Thursday during a meeting of the Buchanan County Board of Supervisors when it was suggested the board hire the next candidate on the list for a secretarial position.
  The secretary would have been for Assistant County Attorney Lee Moise, however, South Grundy Chairman Roger Rife said he thought the manner the county was taking to fill jobs was less than fair.
  "We might as well take equal opportunity employer off the bottom of our advertisements," Rife said. "The way we're doing it, we're not an equal opportunity employer. We are violating the equal opportunity employer law all the time by not giving the citizens of Buchanan County a chance to be gainfully employed if we do all this transferring of one position to another without advertising."
  Specifically the situation to which he referred revolved around the county's recent transfer of the woman initially hired as Moise's secretary to the county administrator's office to fill in for another employee who is still out of the office and hospitalized following a serious car wreck.
  Rife complained that while that was the reason given for the transfer, the fact remained that the job the transferred employee had been doing was not the job of the injured woman, but instead, he said, she was answering the phone and working as a receptionist.
  "Suffice it to say, it's always best to advertise," said County Attorney Mickey McGlothlin when asked his opinion.
  "At least we should give people the opportunity to apply," Rife said.
  He added he was not speaking only to the current issue used as an example, but said there had been other similar instances as well.
  "Past experience has been the way we filled positions and hired people . . . we are not an equal opportunity employer," Rife said.
  County Administrator W. J. Caudill noted there had been nothing done wrong in transferring the employee.
  "We were in a crisis," Caudill said.
   Rife said he had sympathy for that, but went on to ask, "even when we do advertise, are we an equal opportunity employer?"
  He suggested again that the secretarial position should be advertised.

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