PORT ANGELES — Financial figures took a back seat to arguments Wednesday when Olympic Medical Center’s budget hearing broke down into a quarrel over private versus public health care providers.
Dr. Michael Fishman, a former medical center radiologist who now operates an independent imaging clinic in Sequim, accused hospital commissioners of wasting money by buying equipment and duplicating services he offers.
Fishman said the hospital was buying a $300,000 nuclear medical camera like one he operates already in his Peninsula Medical Imaging center.
He called the expenditure “a wasteful duplication of services.”
Fishman also charged that the medical center had budgeted $1.74 million for a sophisticated CT (computed tomography) scanner. Only three such machines operate in the state, he said — one at his clinic and two in Seattle.
“I know you have lots of other unfulfilled needs,” he said, where the money could be better spent.
The crux of Fishman’s claims is that the hospital bought the equipment only to compete with his clinic.
The purchases were added to the medical center budget only after Olympic Medical Center discovered he had bought the apparatus, he said.
‘Siphoning off’ profits
His comments touched off an angry reaction from Jim Leskinovitch, medical center commission chairman.
He said Fishman was “siphoning off” profitable operations that allow the medical center to offer money-losing services like the emergency room.
“You are hurting this hospital and you are hurting this community,” Leskinovitch said.
As the argument continued, Leskinovitch tried to silence Fishman.
“We’ve listened,” he said.
That didn’t end the acrimony.