Pros and Cons: Port Orford vs. Gold Beach (rental, to live)

[Tulippsy]

Originally Posted by CaliforniaPlaya

That is quite the adventure Gold Beach to Medford, and one that changes seasonally. Do you head south to Crescent City and take 199 or is there a better route that can be taken in the summer? Do you receive medical care in Medford by choice or is it because the care needed is not available in Gold Beach (I'm NOT asking about specifics about your care)?

One reason we are considering Gold Beach is because of the new hospital there, but I have heard mixed reviews about that hospital. We were originally considering Crescent City/Smith River with plans as you to head to the Grants Pass/Medford area for shopping and medical. Then considered Brookings due to the petty crime that goes on in CC and and the numerous poor reviews of Sutter Coast. My wife has been to that hospital a couple of times while visiting the area and she got decent care, but too many people report poor quality care there to think it's just a fluke. The next location up the coast with a hospital is Gold Beach. I do realize that a lot of times, these hospitals on the coast act just to stabilize pt's before flying them out in an emergency and primary can be difficult to get. Is medical care on the coast just not something that should even be seriously considered?

The route to Medford is 101 South to 197 to 199 to I-5. It’s a three hour drive.

The medical care on the southern coast is more than adequate unless you need a specialist. I seriously don’t understand all the critical comments about the hospital here. My husband was seen in the emergency room, had surgery there, and I have been seen by the radiology department. The staff and level of care were outstanding in each instance. I’m speaking of the hospital in Gold Beach, not Sutter.

If it were really so difficult to get medical care on the coast, I don’t think there would be so many retirees living here.

[Cloudy Dayz]

Originally Posted by Tulippsy

The route to Medford is 101 South to 197 to 199 to I-5. It’s a three hour drive.

The medical care on the southern coast is more than adequate unless you need a specialist. I seriously don’t understand all the critical comments about the hospital here. My husband was seen in the emergency room, had surgery there, and I have been seen by the radiology department. The staff and level of care were outstanding in each instance. I’m speaking of the hospital in Gold Beach, not Sutter.

If it were really so difficult to get medical care on the coast, I don’t think there would be so many retirees living here.

I agree. I guess if you have some serious medical condition, that requires a specialist, maybe the Coast would not be a good place for you. But unless I had to see a specialist more often than once a month, I wouldn't even consider moving inland. If you are in reasonably good health, medical care on the coast should be adequate.

The care I have gotten here has been great. I have a great primary care doctor. The only thing I have ever done at my local hospital is get lab work done. But they are very professional at that, so I suppose they handle other things the same way.

One thing that kind of bothers me, which I suppose is typical of many small town hospitals, is that I have never seen anybody actually man the front desk at the hospital. They are operating an emergency room, but nobody is there. The only thing you can to is wait for somebody to come by and ask you if you need help. Which can take some time. While I'm waiting, I always start wondering what I would do if I was having a real emergency. I guess I would yell for help and hope that somebody would hear me yelling. I'm not sure what else you could do. But I guess that is really no worse than walking into a big city emergency room with a crowded waiting room, and being directed by a security guard to put your name on a check in list. Then seeing that you are 30 names down the list before any medical person is even going to talk to you.

I find medical care here to be much more personal, and as professional as anywhere. The only thing that could be lacking is specialists.

[CaliforniaPlaya]

Originally Posted by Cloudy Dayz

But I guess that is really no worse than walking into a big city emergency room with a crowded waiting room, and being directed by a security guard to put your name on a check in list. Then seeing that you are 30 names down the list before any medical person is even going to talk to you.

I find medical care here to be much more personal, and as professional as anywhere. The only thing that could be lacking is specialists.

Big city emergency rooms can be difficult. Before my wife and I were married, she was on medicaid and received her primary care through the county hospital. There were times when the wait in the emergency waiting room was upwards of 24 hours just to get a room, and then of course a few more hours waiting for the doctor to show up. It could literally be a 2-day adventure to be seen in ED.

[PNW-type-gal]

Small towns in Oregon, whether along the coast or inland, can share a problem. When they are isolated from other, larger, cities, they tend to have basic medical facilities that require sending serious, trauma or unusual cases out of the hospital by Life Flight helicopter, usually to Portland. Almost all small hospitals in Oregon have built-in helipad facilities for this. It's expensive, but most of the air ambulance services offer a "membership" that defrays costs. It is a gamble over whether you'd ever need it or not.

There are only 2 Level I trauma hospitals in Oregon, both in Portland. There are 4 Level II trauma hospitals in Oregon, 2 in the Willamette Valley, one in Medford, one in Bend. Level III and IV hospitals handle trauma patients by stabilizing them for transport, not treating the actual trauma

As long as the care you need is routine or minor, you can find it in one of the small hospitals on the coast. The problem comes in if/when you need specialty care - that you may have to travel for, particularly when you have network-based insurance. Need an oncologist? How much of a "specialist" do you want? How far are you willing to drive to have weekly (or whatever schedule) chemotherapy?

I had to have cornea transplants in both my eyes. I could have had the expensive transplant surgery done by someone in Medford who does a few a year - or I could drive to Portland to have it done by the doctor who is the co-inventor of the surgery and does 5-8 a week. I drove to Portland and stayed there 2 weeks each time.

[Brynach]

I've never been to Alaska, but Oregon Coast feels like what Alaska must feel like in it's 'rural' areas.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by Brynach

I've never been to Alaska, but Oregon Coast feels like what Alaska must feel like in it's 'rural' areas.

Sorry, not really. I have homes in both Alaska and the Oregon Coast, and there are very few similarities. The vegetation is sort of similar in parts of southern SE Alaska and the Northern Oregon Coast, and sometimes something will remind me of a certain road or stand of trees in the other location, but that's about where it ends. As far as Alaska's "rural" areas, well, distances are so vast in Alaska that there's no comparison. From my home on the panhandle, I have to get up at 5 a.m., drive for about 35 minutes (in good weather) to catch a ferry, sit on the ferry for about three hours before I get to a city of a little over 8,000. From my place on the Oregon Coast, I drive for an hour and I'm in Eugene.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by Brynach

I've never been to Alaska, but Oregon Coast feels like what Alaska must feel like in it's 'rural' areas.

LOL x 10.

Before I moved back to Oregon I lived in Bethel, Alaska for 12 years. West of Anchorage on the flat, treeless tundra. The “real” rural Alaska where the tourists are seldom seen. 400 miles from the road system. The only way to get there is by flying.

About as different from the Oregon Coast as you can get.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by Brynach

I've never been to Alaska, but Oregon Coast feels like what Alaska must feel like in it's 'rural' areas.

Not alike at all. I spent 10 years living and working in coastal Alaska Parts of SE Alaska are somewhat similar to Puget Sound but with much more dramatic and rugged scenery.

Much of Alaska's outer coastline looks more like this photo from Yakutat with glaciers and snow capped mountains plunging straight into the ocean:



Compared to Oregon

[DebSta]

Didn't know how to reply to Tulippsy. Which town do you live in and what are some venue names where your neighbor plays (that can be looked up on line)? Cloudy Dayz, geeze if people have died on those roads and I don't have a cell phone.... So the short route is 3 hours? each way?

[Tulippsy]

Originally Posted by DebSta

Didn't know how to reply to Tulippsy. Which town do you live in and what are some venue names where your neighbor plays (that can be looked up on line)? Cloudy Dayz, geeze if people have died on those roads and I don't have a cell phone.... So the short route is 3 hours? each way?

Sorry, but I don’t know where he plays. I believe there is a place in Pistol River that has music. You could probably google bars in Brookings to see who has music on what nights. I know there is a band in Port Orford called the Port Orford Heads. They’re quite good. I heard them at an art gallery, but don’t know where else they play.

Nightlife isn’t really something the area is known for.

If you are talking about the drive from the coast to Medford, it is 3 hours. Each way. About an hour of the drive is on narrow, winding roads. Don’t worry about not having a cell phone. There’s very little cell service through the coast range anyway, at least with ATT. Just pay attention.