Health Care District Closing In on a 2019 Budget

— by Susan McBain, Orcas Issues Reporter —

Next Tuesday, November 6, the commissioners of the Orcas Island Health Care District (OIHCD) will finalize the District’s 2019 budget. Both a budget hearing and a levy hearing will be part of the November 6 meeting. The final draft of the budget (which is still subject to minor revisions) is available on the District website; it totals slightly under $2 million. The proposed levy rate is $0.65 per $1000 of assessed valuation of property. The meeting will begin at 4 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall.

The commissioners have sent a draft Contract Services Agreement (CSA) to Orcas Family Health Services (OFHC) for review. Once agreement is reached, the CSA will serve as the final contract between OIHCD and OFHC for all of 2019. With the UW Neighborhood Clinic (UWNC), the commissioners are working on an Interim Funding Agreement that will last through the remainder of 2018. They continue to negotiate on terms of a final Contract Services Agreement for 2019.

The commissioners discussed UWNC’s proposal that OIHCD hire a consultant to study how health care has been provided in other rural communities. They decided to propose instead a small work group consisting of two commissioners and a few senior UWNC staff to define the scope and goals of the proposed project.

Commissioner Art Lange reported on his discussions with more than a dozen small island clinics, all in Alaska; he stated that all of them do exactly what OIHCD is proposing to do. However, to date UWNC has not been willing to include some of those services in its contract with OIHCD. A list of the differences between the current UWNC model and the desired OIHCD model was presented at the last meeting (see orcasissues.com/health-district-finalizes-draft-budget-for-nov-6-public-hearing/).

Finally, Superintendent Anne Presson reported on the most recent monthly meeting of herself, EMS personnel from both Orcas and Lopez, EMS Medical Director Dr. Michael Sullivan, County Public Health Medical Officer Dr. Frank James, and UWNC management. Presson expressed concern that UWNC Orcas seemed unwilling to collaborate with the island-based groups in areas that had seemed close to resolution, such as direct EMS phone access to the clinic’s triage nurse during open hours and to on-call providers after hours. She noted that the director and manager of the County Health and Community Services department had expressed similar concerns about lack of collaboration from the UWNC Orcas clinic. Presson plans to request a meeting with senior UWNC clinical leadership to discuss the importance of establishing strong collaboration with key health care stakeholders throughout the County. The commissioners suggested that an OIHCD commissioner and perhaps a Lopez district commissioner should participate to emphasize the importance of this issue to both districts.