Part 1 of 3
— from Anne Presson for Orcas Island Healthcare District —
In this first article of our three-part series on the Orcas Island Healthcare District – who we are, what we do and how we impact the community – we provide an overview of the District.
The District was voted in by the community during the April 2018 election. At the same time, the community elected a governing Board comprised of five Commissioners. In addition to their work on the Board, Commissioners participate in various Committees and Work Groups including finance, communication, after-hours care, negotiations, building maintenance, patient experience, and quality.
The goal of the District is to ensure that ALL members of our community have access to island-appropriate primary and urgent care in a financially sustainable manner. To deliver on that goal, the District began working closely with the two existing clinics to understand their operations and mutually set a budget that would determine funding support.
Late last year, the District signed contracts to provide financial support to ensure the sustainability of both clinics. Since that time, the District also purchased refrigerators and freezers for both clinics so they can satisfy safety standards for storing vaccines. After learning that the x-ray machine at UW Medicine Orcas Island Clinic was no longer viable, the District helped facilitate implementation of a shared x-ray service between UW Medicine Orcas Island Clinic and Orcas Family Health Center (OFHC). This enabled UW patients needing x-ray to be referred to OFHC as an option to having to travel to an off-island provider.
As part of the transition during which Orcas Medical Foundation began to wind down operations, the District purchased the medical clinic building and existing equipment from OMF. This transaction help to ensure that the community-financed facility will continue to be community-owned and available for providing medical services. In conjunction with the purchase, the Board signed a new lease agreement with the UW Medicine Orcas Island Clinic.
In addition to providing a specific scope of services during the regular business hours, the District’s contract with OFHC extends care to seeing patients in the clinic after hours, when medically necessary. The District continues to work with UW to design a mutually acceptable after-hours model. The District is charged with the financial stewardship of public funds, and Washington law requires the District to set an annual budget and levy amount. The County Assessor uses that information to establish the next year’s levy rate. In 2019, the PHD levy rate is $.65 per $1000 of assessed property value. For a home value of $450,000, this means a tax of approximately $293/year, or $586/year for a property valued at $900,000. The total amount of property taxes collected by OIHCD is expected to be $1,473,784. The full budget can be viewed on our website at https://orcashealth.org under the Governing Documents tab.
In addition to the budget, please visit the District website to obtain contact information, view a calendar of meeting dates, access materials and sign up to receive updates and notices.
Note to Port of Orcas: Take a close look at the Healthcare District as a model for how to communicate with the Orcas community that pays taxes to support your district. In other words, THIS is how it’s done — well.
I have been at every meeting of this commission including the 6-hour-long marathon retreat Monday last. As a born-again skeptic of healthcare administrative culture with a Masters degree from long hours of observation ‘in-the-wild’ to prove it, I have taken a long time making up my mind about these folks and this governing body as it affects Orcas’ healthcare outlook.
I continue to be suspicious of how folks that administer healthcare for others wind up granting themselves prerogatives based on qualifications not gained from education, training, or experience with a profound effect on things they know nothing of.
..Yet I have come to admire the cool-headed and businesslike approach of this diverse group of individuals to sharing their areas of expertise while identifying and educating themselves about things they cannot appropriately understand fully.
They have taken on a pretty serious situation with a longstanding pattern of dysfunction and an uncertain outlook in a changing environment of undiscovered demand, regulatory flux and financial threat. Yet they invite your observation and participation and waste little effort mustering a good face to deflect your concerns.
We as citizens are accustomed to being bamboozled with false formalities and ‘obfuscatorily’ artificial legalities that ultimately deny us a say in how our most pressing concerns are governed. IMHO we have grown .. not apathetic, but .. I’d say “wounded” in our good faith and trust. I’d not characterize this Commission as trying to heal that or ‘win you over,’ but as taking on matters of pressing concern, transparently.
I’m not sure we know what to expect.
But I can’t find enough em, BS here to fertilize a houseplant.
I want to applaud Lief’s comments….right on. This IS serious stuff, and this group is entrusted with making decisions that affect us all.
As Ted Grossman used to say, “kudos” …for providing useful information in a concise format. There are layers and layers of complication here. Thanks for wading through those complications, while still keeping islanders’ needs in your sights, and reporting out what matters.
“We as citizens are accustomed to being bamboozled with false formalities and ‘obfuscatorily’ artificial legalities that ultimately deny us a say in how our most pressing concerns are governed.” I agree Lief– and for those leaders (at every level), who continue to not listen to the very citizens who pay you– know that we will make our voices heard at the ballot box.
“The goal of the District is to ensure that ALL members of our community have access to island-appropriate primary and urgent care in a financially sustainable manner.” I really appreciate this mission statement. “Island-appropriate” is a concept that some residents don’t seem to comprehend. Economies of scale and geographical barriers are only two factors that prohibit the provision of the same health care here as in, say, Bellingham. When one moves to an island, one has to be prepared to live without immediate access to certain infrastructure found on the mainland.