PORT ANGELES — About 100 Virginia Mason clinic patients gathered Monday in the hopes of taking the facility’s future into their own hands.
That many of those hands were age-spotted or arthritic didn’t stop them from waving checkbooks in the air to buy time for the clinic or applauding speakers who said some Port Angeles doctors are greedy and Olympic Medical Center commissioners are “pinheads.”
By the end of the two-hour meeting, they’d formed a steering committee, decided to insert themselves into negotiations with Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, and started raising money to keep the clinic open until it starts to receive revenue as an independent operation.
“We’re going to be negotiating for 19,000 patients,” said Penney Thiemann of Port Angeles, the meeting’s organizer.
Several people pledged $1,000 donations, and one — Larry Howard of Port Angeles — offered to buy a certificate of deposit to use as collateral to leverage a larger loan.
Medical co-op
Calling themselves the Peninsula Medical Cooperative, members plan to confront other parties to the crisis when negotiators meet at 6 p.m. Wednesday at Olympic Medical Center, although the meeting will be closed to the public.
Losing the clinic could cripple Clallam County’s economy, participants said.
“We advertise this area as being great for retirees,” said Larry Sibelman of Port Angeles.
“Are we kidding somebody?”
Added Steve Truebow of Joyce: “This is more important than building swimming pools. It’s more important than tourism.”
Virginia Mason-Seattle has announced it will shut the clinic April 30, leaving in the lurch 19,000 patients, including many Medicare clients who have few alternatives to find primary care.
Without primary care providers, they cannot get referrals to specialists, prescriptions or admission to extended care.