Health Care Commissioners Are Working Hard

— by Susan McBain, Orcas Issues reporter —

After their marathon special meeting the day before, the commissioners of the Orcas Health Care District continued doubling down, adding an extra hour to their regular meeting on June 12. And they got a lot done.

The commissioners will confirm adoption of the interim budget at the public hearing on June 21 at the Orcas Library, after discussion and public comments. If confirmed, the interim budget will allow the Commission to proceed with its request for a $400,000 loan from San Juan County to finance its expenses until proceeds of the levy are available next year.

Commissioners Patty Miller and Richard Fralick continued to fine-tune long-term financing needs. Final budgets from UW Medicine (UWM) and Orcas Family Health Center (OFHC) should be received this week; amounts in those budgets will be major factors in determining those needs. In the fall, the interim budget will be replaced by a final budget, which will be used to establish the actual levy rate for 2019.

To handle its immediate expenses, the Commission resolved that the San Juan County treasurer could issue warrants to pay Commission bills. These warrants will be repaid with interest when loan funds become available.

The Commission continued to explore the possibility of assuming ownership of the UWM building by no-cost transfer from the Orcas Medical Foundation (OMF). The commissioners voted to hire building inspector Tim Hance to perform a full inspection of the UWM building. Miller has received an asset list and requested a depreciation schedule from OMF. If the building condition and cost projections are acceptable, the Commission is leaning toward accepting the building, which could keep costs slightly lower than OMF’s costs—saving about $10,000 per year in property taxes, for example. However, any modifications to the building over $15,000 would then be subject to public works requirements, which might increase costs.

Moving forward on plans for contract negotiations with providers, the Commission voted to authorize Commissioner Pegi Groundwater to work with Commission attorneys on draft funding agreements for UWM/OMF and OFHC. The commissioners plan to discuss technical and personal skills needed on the negotiating team at their next meeting.

Miller is working on summarizing the consensus from Monday’s special meeting (see article), which focused on:

• clarifying the nature of the services to be secured by the District, including minimum levels of service for both primary and urgent care;
• exploring how to use metrics to measure patient/community satisfaction and clinic productivity; and
• determining how to approach contracting with each of the clinics.

Commissioner Art Lange described plans for soliciting citizen input into the Commission’s work. The board is considering how to use both Town Halls and surveys to encourage discussion and capture feedback from the community. Lange hopes to associate costs with each issue, so that citizens can voice their opinions on what services they desire and at what cost. Commissioner Diane Boteler cautioned that careful wording of survey questions to avoid bias is essential. She pointed out that neither Town Halls nor surveys will produce truly scientific results, but that they will give a feel for what the community wants.

Two people have applied for the position of minutes taker, and one person has applied for the superintendent position. The Commission discussed the implications of hiring the half-time Lopez superintendent, Ann Preston, as half-time superintendent on Orcas if she applies. The Lopez district commissioners would like to meet with the Orcas commissioners to discuss the possible synergies and conflicts that could arise from this arrangement.

The commissioners discussed their need for computers and services for their work. Boteler prefers to contract with NW Technology to obtain both. The computer price tag of $1,000 per commissioner was deemed a bit high, so research will continue into acceptable machines in the $600–$700 range.

Commissioners devoted the additional hour of their meeting to reviewing and making changes to their foundational documents and policies, including bylaws, code of ethics, conflict of interest, and public records. The first two should be ready for adoption by next week. The other two and an electronic records policy will need more work.