PORT ANGELES – Olympic Medical Center commissioners Wednesday bought the former Virginia Mason clinic on Eighth Street, but were silent about negotiations with its nine health-care providers.
Only Commissioner Jim Cammack voted against the purchase, saying a nearly $4 million investment in the building was foolish without certainty that the doctors would remain there.
But Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch, citing the 12,000 people who call the clinic their medical home, said, “We are responsible for those patients.”
The doctors, he said, would reach a contract.
“They don’t want to leave their community,” he said.
In an audience filled with clinic clients, only one woman protested the prolonged negotiations.
Sherry Phillips of Port Angeles said the hospital’s offer to the doctors was 45 percent below what private family practitioners earn in Sequim.
The current contracts expired Dec. 31 but have been extended to the end of January.
“We would hope that you can resolve this soon,” Phillips said.
Medical center CEO Eric Lewis said he also hoped the contacts could be signed soon.
