SEQUIM — Only two of the seven doctors at the soon-to-close Virginia Mason clinic here will receive financial assistance from Olympic Medical Center to remain in the area, according to Public Relations Director Rhonda LoPresti.
The other five doctors still are under contract with Virginia Mason, LoPresti said, correcting an erroneous news story in the Peninsula Daily News last Sunday.
“We are committed to stabilizing the health care in our community — but we are not in contract negotiations with these other doctors,” she said.
Olympic Medical Center is working on doctor recruitment for the area, which includes retaining the doctors already here, LoPresti said.
However, they aren’t actively in negotiations with the other five Virginia Mason doctors due to those contract obligations, she said.
Dermatologist Claire L. Haycox and internist and pulmonary specialist Rebecca Corley will receive 12-month “income guarantees” from Olympic Medical Center to help them start private practices in Sequim.
Those contracts are similar to those used with other physicians that the medical center has recruited or retained in the last year, LoPresti said, .
The move follows last month’s Virginia Mason announcement that the Sequim clinic, 777 N. Fifth Ave., will close in March.
An estimated 6,000 patients could be affected by the Sequim clinic closure.
