By MIKE GLENN
EDITOR’S NOTE: Mike Glenn is CEO of Olympic Medical Center. He wrote this article for the PDN.
As our community knows, Virginia Mason Medical Center has decided to close its clinics in Port Angeles.
From a strictly business standpoint, we understand their decision.
The Port Angeles operation has lost money every year for the past several years.
However, from the standpoint of ensuring that all members of our community have the primary care physicians they need, this VM decision is extremely disturbing.
It will impact around 12,000 primary care patients who potentially will have no physician when Virginia Mason exits May 1.
Because of this, Olympic Medical Center has worked diligently to find a solution.
While it is not our responsibility — nor do we have the financial resources — to “bail out” Virginia Mason from an unprofitable business or to subsidize its clinic, we do feel an obligation to do everything within our power to ensure our community members have access to health care.
Six months of discussion about possible solutions have occurred, all to no avail.
There have been numerous meetings between OMC and Virginia Mason/Seattle, between VM-Seattle and the physicians of VM-PA and between VM-PA and Olympic Medical Center.
On several occasions, we thought we were close to finding agreement with one of the two parties, only to see our hopes dashed when the third party could not agree, all while facing significant pressure to make sure our community has a clinic May 1.
What has become painfully clear is we simply could not force VM-PA to doctors agree to VM-Seattle’s proposals, nor could we make either party agree to our proposals.
OMC steps up
What we can do is redirect the discussion from clinical business models to patient care models, and from provider-centered solutions to patient-centered solutions.
This is what we are doing:
* If we are unable to find another solution, effective in early May, Olympic Medical Center plans to begin to operate two primary care clinics to care for thousands of displaced VM patients.
The first, Klahhane Clinic, will be located at the current VM clinic at 923 Georgiana St.
This clinic will be staffed with six-plus providers, be open five to six days a week, 10 hours a day, and be able to accommodate more than 100 patient visits a day.
In addition, we will open the Caroline Clinic at the old Virginia Mason Internal Medicine building located at 912 Caroline St.
The clinic will be staffed with five-plus providers, be open five to six days a week, 10 hours a day and be able to accommodate more than 60 primary care patients a day.
Hopefully, both clinics will be staffed by existing VM nurses and clinic staff — and, if they choose to work there, existing VM physicians.
We introduced the concept of a back-up plan at our March 9 board of commissioners’ meeting — and spoke about it in greater detail to VM-PA physician leaders at a recent meeting.
However, there are still many logistical details to work out.
While we would prefer a different outcome to this crisis and are still actively pursuing other solutions, we believe the alternative plan makes sense because it will provide ongoing primary care to the patients of the current VM clinic, hopefully by many or most of the same physicians currently providing their care.
* Second, OMC will not be required to spend $3.5 million dollars on aging buildings we do not need nor particularly want.
And, most importantly, this solution can be resolved locally, by the caregivers and organizations our community members have entrusted with their health care.
Talking with VM docs
We plan to begin talking with existing VM doctors about this opportunity, and we hope that many of them agree to join these clinics.
However, in the event this does not occur, we will staff these clinics with existing community non-VM physicians and other resources to make sure the transition is smooth.
Clearly, VM doctors agreeing to staff this clinic is best, but we cannot control the decisions they make.
Either way, these clinics will be open for care in May.
We look forward to a successful resolution to this community health care problem, so we can go back to the important work of managing a small rural hospital in this challenging health care environment.