PORT ANGELES — A forum sponsored by Olympic Medical Center at its Sequim campus will focus on the community’s medical needs in light of the looming September closure of Sherwood Medical Center.
The 2 p.m. Aug. 4 meeting, announced Wednesday evening at the hospital commissioners’ regular meeting, will be at OMC’s Fifth Avenue facility, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Scott Kennedy said.
In preparation for the forum, residents should ponder if their medical needs are now being met with the present array of medical services available in Sequim, Kennedy said.
As a guide, he referred to questionnaire cards available at Wednesday’s meeting that ask: “Have you attempted to locate a primary care provider in the past six months?” and “Do you have any medical conditions (e.g. chronic pain, mental illness) that make it difficult to find a primary care provider? Please explain.”
Olympic Medical Center has been trying to help recruit a physician to buy Sherwood and take the place of Dr. Paul Hoque, who opened the 540 W. Hendrickson Road clinic in 2000 and died of cancer in October 2008.
“We’ve been unsuccessful with that,” Kennedy said. “OMC is monitoring that very closely.”
OMC has kept the clinic open since December 2008 with a temporary lease for clinic services and management to serve Sherwood’s estimated 6,000 patients, but two of three clinic providers have left, and OMC is canceling the lease in September after spending about $300,000.
Without a new owner, the clinic cannot by law bill for Medicare services after December 2008, Kennedy said.
More than half of Sherwood’s patients are on Medicare, and hospital spokesman Jeff Anderson said earlier this week that there is a known shortage of access to primary care in Sequim.
Kennedy said the hospital will not buy the clinic.
In other discussion at Wednesday’s meeting:
• Security and Safety Supervisor Mike Hall said there were at least 61 instances of violence at Olympic Medical Center in 2008, including 50 in the emergency room and five in the hospital hallways. There were no serious injuries to staff or patients.
He said he did not know if all the violent occurrences were reported.
Staff does not use pepper spray but does use handcuffs and is looking into having Tasers on hand to subdue violent patients.
If there is a violent incident, 15 to 20 staff respond.
“We do it en masse,” Hall said.
He added that two people grab one limb each to subdue the person.
“It’s two people per limb, so nobody gets hurt and everyone has a good, strong grip on a person.”
The goal, Kennedy said, “is to de-escalate potential violence and protect the patient and the staff as well.”
• Chief Financial Officer Julie Rukstad presented drawings that depicted improved road access to the Sequim campus by adding a loop road, expanding the parking lot and widening the entrance to 36 feet.
An emergency helicopter pad also will be built at the site.
The Jamestown Klallam tribe, which is erecting a clinic on the campus, will share the cost of the main new road that will be built, Rukstad said.
The improvement plans were reviewed by the hospital budget committee last week.
Rukstad said she did not know how much the improvements will cost and did not know when they would be made.
• Kennedy said the hospital is helping recruit physicians for the new Jamestown clinic.
He said the hospital is strengthening its doctor-recruitment efforts by shifting responsibility for recruitment staff to Rhonda Curry, assistant administrator for strategic marketing and communications.
“Physician recruitment is being prioritized,” Kennedy said.
“In the past, it has not been fully resourced. This makes it more of a priority.”
At the meeting, Kennedy filled in for Lewis, who is out of town this week.
Also absent were Curry and Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch.
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
