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Jackson County hires health officer A Washington, D.C., doctor has been hired to oversee medical care in Jackson County's public health programs, including juvenile and adult corrections agencies and the county's opiate treatment program. Dr. Lynn W. Kitchen will become the county health officer beginning Jan. 2, Hank Collins, county health and human services director, said Monday. Kitchen will provide full-time medical care, replacing part-time contracts the county now holds with two area doctors and the services of a full-time nurse practitioner at the Jackson County Jail, Collins said. The move is designed to save the county money while providing expanded medical coverage, he added. "As we've grown and as the work we do becomes more complex, we've needed a full-time doctor here to provide the medical oversight necessary," Collins said. Kitchen will be paid an annual salary of about $120,000, plus benefits that raise the total to about $135,000, Collins said. That will replace about $160,000 in contracts and salaries now paid to Dr. David Gilmour, Dr. Jim Shames and a nurse-practitioner at the county jail. "The point is, Dr. Gilmour has been working for us for two hours a week and Dr. Shames has been working for a us for six hours a week; now we'll have a 40-hour a week doctor," Collins said. In addition, the move will relieve the need to send inmates out of the jail for medical attention by a doctor. "It's been a need for some time now," Collins said. In January, improved medical care at the county jail was one recommendation of a report on the facility by an independent auditor. Richard K. Sherman, Lane County Director of Mental Health, called the lack of physician supervision "a glaring oversight." Kitchen holds a master's degree in public health from Georgetown University. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.