PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center, Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital have a decision to make.
Officials from the consortium of regional hospitals will tour three Seattle-area medical centers in the coming weeks to help them select a “tertiary affiliate.”
Although the exact details of the arraignment have yet to be negotiated, the idea is for the smaller hospitals to refer patients to the larger hospital for specialized care.
In return, the tertiary affiliate will send patients back to the Peninsula for follow-up care and help the smaller hospitals recruit doctors and implement cost-saving improvements such as information technology and electronic medical records.
As a group, the three local hospitals sent requests for information to seven larger medical centers in September.
All seven responded.
OMC announced the finalists Dec. 15. They are:
• Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton.
• Providence Health & Services, based in Seattle.
• Swedish Medical Center, based in Seattle.
“Over the next 30 days, we’ll be taking site visits to Harrison, Providence and Swedish,” OMC Chief Executive Officer Eric Lewis said during Wednesday’s board meeting.
“All three hospitals — Forks, Jefferson and, of course, OMC — will be sending representatives from administration, their boards and their medical staff leaders,” Lewis added.
Lewis described the visits as “the next big step” in the selection process.
Focus on services
“And what we’re going to be doing at these site visits is really focusing on clinical services such as cardiology, and inpatient services and tertiary services,” Lewis said.
“Also, looking at electronic medical records and looking at what they have to offer there. Then also having discussions on mission, vision and values and talking about strategic direction.”
OMC hosted a joint workshop with Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital to discuss the idea on Nov. 10.
Administrators and several board members emphasized in that meeting that patient choice and physician choice would remain the same.
OMC administration met with medical staff Jan. 13 in Sequim and Monday in Port Angeles to discuss cardiology and inpatient services.
“We got the medical staff together and had a really good discussion on what do we want from a tertiary medical center cardiology service, what do we want as far as inpatient,” Lewis said.
“We got really good feedback from both meetings in Sequim and Port Angeles.
“It was very timely and I think it’s really going to help the process.
“I think that will really help us as we launch in these site visits.”
OMC officials are working on a checklist for the selection of an affiliate, much like the checklist used for OMC’s recent purchase of a $2.7 million Varian TrueBeam linear accelerator to treat cancer patients at the Sequim cancer canter.
Decision end of March
“By the March time frame, I think we may be in a position to look at our options and see if the board wants to make a decision,” Lewis said,
Commissioner Jim Leskinovitch asked Lewis if there is a hard deadline for choosing the affiliate. Lewis said OMC will all take the time it needs to make a good decision.
“My personal goal is to have all the information and due diligence in place by the end of March for the board to make a selection,” Lewis said.
“We have learned a lot about these organizations but we’ll be learning more. I think the discussions we have in the next few months will be key.”
Commissioner Jim Cammack said it will be important for the consortium of local hospitals to consider public input in making their selection.
In other news, OMC passed a resolution in support of the proposed Port Angeles School District property tax levy.
The district’s measure, which will be on the Feb. 8 ballot, will ask voters to approve a four-year levy that would collect $8,178,067 in 2012 and increase slightly over the next four years.
It would replace the current four-year levy that will collect $7,439,312 in 2011, its final year.
The current levy rate is $2.43 per $1,000 assessment — which means the owner of a $200,000 home will pay $486 in property taxes this year.
If passed, the estimated rate would be $2.65 per $1,000 assessment each of the four years.
________
Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.