Going forward, Orcas Island Health Care District to begin weekly updates

— from Anne Presson for Orcas Island Health Care District —

The Orcas Island Health Care District (OIHCD) will begin publishing on a weekly basis to report on activities underway within the District. It is important to us that we communicate regularly with the community we serve and convey our efforts to support our focus on protecting and improving the health of our community.

In the immediate term the District will do this by ensuring that island-appropriate, quality primary and acute/urgent medical care, including after-hours care, is available to all members of our community in a consistent, reliable, financially sustainable, and cost-effective manner.

Since the Board is responsible for acting as fiduciaries of public funds, much of the work over the past years has been to assess the current health care model and determine if there were opportunities to reduce the tax burden. Equal emphasis was placed on ensuring all islanders have access to quality care within an overall health care system that could be sustained for the long-term.

Throughout the process, we continued to meet regularly with leadership from both UW Medicine and Orcas Family Health Center (OFHC). Following the fiscal year 2020 budget process, the leadership of both clinics and the District agreed that the current two clinic model was not sustainable financially or operationally.

In early January 2020 there was consensus of the Board that it was in the best interest of all parties to consolidate funding and support a single clinic model in 2021. The Board communicated their decision to the community, conveying that a single clinic would more efficiently and effectively manage scope of services, after-hours coverage, medical equipment, and other resources.

In order to identify the right entity to operate a single clinic, the Board began the process of developing a Request for Proposal (RFP). The RFP was designed to educate qualified parties on the unique nature of the island community and solicit responses from those interested in submitting a proposal to operate a single clinic on Orcas. It was the Board’s expressed desire to have both of the existing Clinic operators participate in the process. While OFHC has confirmed they will be submitting a proposal, UW Medicine informed the Board that they will not be responding. While UW supports the direction OIHCD is going toward consolidation, as a result of the impacts of COVID on UW Medicine, they are not able to participate in significant change or expansion of their services which consolidation would require. Even if the process were delayed a year, UW would not be able to provide a proposal.

Over the past several months, the Commissioners worked to define the
information needed to be able to evaluate proposals for a single clinic. In addition to considering how to optimize providers and staffing and encourage an island- centric culture, the Board thoroughly researched the options available to maximize reimbursement. The options explored included the following:

• Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) or FQHC Look-alike.
• Affiliating with an existing FQHC.
• Rural Health Center status (RHC) or utilizing OFHC’s RHC status
• RHC affiliation with a 50-bed or less hospital under the designation of Provider-Based Rural Health Clinic (PB RHC).

The RFP document can be found on the District website, and it includes a timeline of critical dates for the RFP process. Two critical dates to be aware of are the deadline for receiving responses, June 26, and the proposed date to award the contract, August 4.

We will be holding Town Hall meetings to inform members of our community of our progress, to hear your thoughts, and to answer your questions. Due to continued constraints to hold meetings, it is very likely we will be conducting these Town Halls via Zoom. We will continue to monitor how well the meetings can be accommodated remotely, and what changes come about as a result of the pandemic. It is possible circumstances might require we adjust or cancel meetings, and we appreciate the community’s understanding. We maintain information on the District Calendar and post to online sources as quickly as possible if changes are required.

It is expected the Town Hall meetings will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. on the following dates:

• Tuesday, June 30
• Thursday, July 9
• Tuesday, July 21

We realize that any transition that might result from this process is unsettling and can be disruptive. Whatever the result, we are committed to doing everything possible to ensure a continuous provision of care while mitigating the impact on patients, providers, and staff.

We will continue to publish articles on a routine basis in both The Sounder and Orcas Issues to keep you informed of what we are doing and why. In addition, all Board members and our Superintendent, Anne Presson, are available by phone or email. You may contact us with any comments or questions, and you can find our contact information at www.orcashealth.org.

Please give us an opportunity to communicate with you in whatever manner works best. With your help, we have an exciting opportunity to create a stable model for primary and urgent care that will deliver value to all members of our community.