A call for a Community Advisory Group to Health District
— from Vincent Shu, MD —
We can not tell you how much we appreciated OIHCD’s commissioners’ tireless efforts to re-shaping our Island’s healthcare model in a cost-effective way. This need to look for other viable options is driven by the fact that the present healthcare model is not financially sustainable. After numerous hours spent at the District’s Board and the special meetings with the OIHCD hired consultants, it is clear that we now have enormous amounts of information which, while informative, is sometimes also confusing, perhaps misleading. And as of today (about 22 months since the inception of OIHCD), this complicated issue remains unresolved and undecided similar to driving on a roundabout without exiting.
Due to the aforementioned issues, a call for the Community Advisory Group reflecting a voice of community is needed.
This public forum meeting is meant to pick and spur the intelligent Islanders’ brains to come forth with creative ideas and alternative models for OIHCD’s consideration. They need not be extremely complicated but can be COMMON SENSE idea that we all have intuitively.
Our Tax-paying community’s voice deserves to be heard by OIHCD. This voice stemming from the community provides a unique strength reflecting the wills of our tax payers which may not be the best interests of a large corporate clinic. It is the community’s desire for an ideal healthcare not in the interest of a large corporate clinic but of a sustainable value to the community.
It is our pleasure to invite each of you for the meeting with this focus : Is OIHCD Owned Healthcare Clinic Workable and Achievable?
To give you background on the issues, please review the following articles at Orcas Issues:
- OIHCD’s ongoing work to create a future health care model for Orcas Island by OIHCD.
- Health District facing uncertainties regarding costs, structure, by Susan McBain
- To operate or subsidize a healthcare clinic? by Vincent Shu
Please join us for one of six public forum meetings as follows:
- 02/27 Thursday 5-7 pm, Library
- 02/29 Saturday 5-7 pm, Library
- 03/05 Thursday 5-7 pm, Library
- 03/07 Saturday 5-7 pm, Library
- 03/12 Thursday 5-7 pm, Library
- 03/14 Saturday 5-7 pm, Library
I want to express my sincere gratitude in advance for those who can attend one of those meetings to offer valuable input, thought and support because they’re concerned and actively engaged in their healthcare which we all hope to sustain for many years and generations to come.
With all due respect, Dr. Shu, this is simply a bad idea. The “community voice” was heard with the election of the board for the District. The issues are myriad and complex. The board is doing a good job addressing these in an orderly and comprehensive manner. They need to continue with focused efforts uninterrupted.
An advisory group reflecting the collective opinion(s) of the “community” is a certain formula for chaos and dissension. I am sure that any individual community member who wishes to do so can easily gain the ear of of a board member to register his or her idea or opinion.
An invitation to attend the meeting entitled “Is an OIHCD-owned healthcare clinic achievable and sustainable ? ”
Agenda (not limited to) as follows:
1. What did we learn from the fact that OIHCD deemed the present subsidized-clinic model to be financially unsustainable? It is paramount to critically review what went wrong, from which we should have an open heart and mind to learn from it and really make impactful changes.
Without doing so, we will see the same issues repeatedly resurfacing, resulting in significant further problems for residents.
2. OIHCD said “Both clinics (UW and OFHC) do not see sufficient numbers of patients”. This comes as no surprise as the Orcas clinic is a small clinic serving a population of about 5000. If that is the fact, let’s face it. Let’s not attempt to overinflate/overestimate the numbers of clinic visits for a higher subsidy. Instead, let’s sit down to find an appropriate solution.
3. What are the unique healthcare needs on Orcas that are different from that of the Seattle Clinics? Would an OIHCD-owned clinic be a better option than others, in order to turn our dreams into reality without bankrupting our healthcare tax dollars? Why or why not?
4. What is a simplified, transparent method for the clinic subsidy based upon the validated status of the clinic’s finances and bank account(s) balance?
Leonard: Thank for your comment:
OIHCD said “ Throughout this process we also remain committed to hearing from the community and keeping the community informed.” Thus, the District adopted the idea of Community Advisory Group which has been discussed at one of Regular Board Meetings as one way to outreaching the community.
Commissioners further said “ If there is a dispute from the Community Advisory Group, OIHCD has its ultimate say”
On 02/18 of the last Board meeting, before this said article was published, I spoke to one of OIHCD Commissioners to ensure that I did not overstep the authority of the District specific to my intent to post this said article. He said ” As an US citizen, you’re free to express your opinion as permitted by the Law”
With all due respect Leonard Wood, the democratic process does not begin and end with an election–any election. At its best, democracy is an ongoing, responsive dialogue among concerned equals (elected and otherwise). Suppressing the collective voice of a community in the name of keeping order is worse than “simply a bad idea.” It is a dengerous erosion of the fundamental values of our shared citizenship.
This process began with a community group that presented the community with a ballot measure for which the community voted. The commissioners were appointed to address the issue. I thought that WAS the “democratic process.”
The individual voice of reason and the vote freely cast is the basis of our democratic system. It need not be sacrificed to an amorphous “.collective voice.”
I must note that Dr. Shu’s “Community Advisory Group” is not the same as the one the Orcas Island Health Care District plans to organize in the near future. The District’s group will be formed by the District based on its needs and on the abilities of those interested in participating. Full disclosure: I am the Orcas Issues reporter who has been covering District meetings.
A while back there was a day-long in-depth meeting with some of the healthcare industry’s leading consultants to examine our options, and the community was allowed not only to observe, but to participate. [I did not see Dr. Shu there btw. and some of his comments seem to show it. I personally do not feel confused or misled, but I asked my questions then, directly of the consultants. The answers made my head explode, but healthcare is a hard topic!]
At the end of that day-long special session, with our consultant’s advice, the Commission initiated project planning to meet the goals of restructuring and finding potential organizations to partner with that would help us to meet the financial and public healthcare service goals of the district, our community.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XbtQ_iTUPpecJjihaN0LSO0-rVKcDqiH/view?usp=sharing
This is a screenshot of that Plan and Timeline as it stood a few weeks ago, with March’s milestones highlighted. As was commented when this longterm process started months ago, there would be a hiatus while the data was collected, before we would know enough to make a decision. So be patient.
..What we might do most productively in the meanwhile, was to ask questions, educate ourselves, and think about those details that would make our Orcas healthcare system most responsive to our needs within a given structure, to be determined. As I understand it a series of Town Halls are planned .. em, when we have something concrete to talk about.
..At present the facts are pretty stark and well-reported on, and we are sortof in an uncomfortable in-between place where most of the work is taking place behind the scenes, following up on leads throughout the industry.
Some seem understandably impatient. I sure am.
Other questions and advice can actually be submitted during public comments at commission meetings or online at https://orcashealth.org/contact-us/ or
Anne L. Presson, Superintendent annep@orcashealth.org or (415) 999-5611 or in person at the District office by appt.
We are not on a roundabout without exit. We have a plan, but the time frame is long
~as befits the task, ~
and this period of uncertainty seems to give some the latitude to insert their own agendas.
At this moment the “Advisory Council” seems to have a membership of one. Not that there is not much to discuss to articulate our needs. But finding a “simple,” or “intuitive” solution to perceived aimless wandering does not do justice to the complexity of the task on many levels, the amount of hard work we are doing, have done, and have yet to accomplish as we consider our real needs as a community and how to address them in a new and hopefully more effective fashion.
Is OIHCD owned Healthcare Clinic feasible?
The first eight identified U.S. fatalities from the 2020 pandemic of SARS-CoVID-19 were reported at EvergreenHealth Kirkland, WA beginning with the first on February 29, 2020.The cases were residents or visitors to the Life Care Center of Kirkland, a local nursing home. The hospital increased its number of beds in negative-airflow rooms from 15 to 58 as part of its response to the growing number of coronavirus patients; As of March 11, 2020, 65 people treated at the hospital have tested positive for the coronavirus and 15 have died.
EvergreenHealth Kirkland is the first US COVID Treatment Center which is owned and managed by the King County Public Hospital District No. 2.
EvergreenHealth Kirkland is a 318-bed general hospital in Kirkland, Washington EvergreenHealth is an American regional healthcare system based in the Seattle metropolitan area of Washington state. It has two general hospitals in Kirkland and Monroe, and several smaller clinics and urgent care facilities in King and Snohomish counties. A public hospital district was formed by a voter-approved ballot measure in 1967 to serve northeastern King County.
EvergreenHealth has 4,500 employees, including 1,100 physicians and 500 volunteers. It is officially the King County Public Hospital District No. 2 and managed by an elected board of 7 commissioners from within the hospital district. In 2018, EvergreenHealth had total revenue of $1.9 billion, primarily from Medicare and private insurers, and total expenses of $702.8 million.
If the King County Public Hospital District No. 2 can own, run and operate two large profitable hospitals with multiple clinics as stated above, what are the reasons for why OIHCD can not own and operate a small clinic of about 5000 population?