PORT ANGELES — Wanted: A dragon, preferably one willing to be slain. The Peninsula Medical Cooperative will be seeking new causes if the Virginia Mason clinic crisis is resolved to co-op members’ satisfaction — not that medical controversies will be hard to find.
The cooperative could join a campaign to reform Medicare, explore a state- or Clallam County-wide health care network, or involve itself politically in Hospital District 2, whose commissioners govern Olympic Medical Center.
OMC and Virginia Mason family doctors announced Friday an “agreement in principle” to affiliate the clinic’s resources with the medical center.
Under the agreement, the clinic at 433 E. Eighth St. would remain open under the name Olympic Medical Center Primary Care Clinic after April 30.
The co-op formed last month after the Virginia Mason clinic’s corporate parent in Seattle sent letters to patients, advising them to find new primary care physicians.
Virginia Mason-Seattle had announced last September it would abandon the clinic, but the crisis had attracted little attention until the letter arrived in patients’ mailboxes.
About 100 patients gathered March 20 in the Senior Services and Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St., to demand a voice in negotiations among the Virginia Mason clinic, Virginia Mason-Seattle and Olympic Medical Center.