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PENINSULA DAILY NEWS January 22-23, 2016 | 75¢
Port Townsend-Jefferson County’s Daily Newspaper JANUARY
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20 years of health care
PA-Seattle air service postponed SeaPort Airlines cites pilot shortage in delay BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
CHARLIE BERMANT/PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
South County Medical Clinic director Merrily Mount waits for a test result in the clinic’s lab. The service has been operating for 20 years.
Saturday even to fete south county clinic Lab, other tech capabilities keep patients coming BY CHARLIE BERMANT PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
QUILCENE — Twenty years of health care at a small clinic that provides southern Jefferson County with its only medical option will be celebrated Saturday. “I don’t know what we would do if it wasn’t here,” Brinnon
resident Joy Baisch said of the South County Medical Clinic. “It’s the only access that kids have to medical attention without having to miss a day of school.”
U.S. Highway 101, which is part of the Jefferson Healthcare system, began operation in 1996 under the supervision of nurse practitioner Merrily Mount, 64, who is still at the helm. Open house Mount said technology has led to a significant change in An open house is set to take how the clinic provides services. place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at When it opened, it communithe Quilcene Community Center, cated with the hospital in Port 294952 U.S. Highway 101. Tours Townsend by fax. of the clinic, situated across the When lab work was required, road, will start from the commuMount had to drive to Chimacum nity center. and meet a courier who would Snacks will be served, Baisch take them the rest of the way. said. TURN TO CLINIC/A4 The clinic, located at 294843
PORT ANGELES — Restoring commercial air service from Port Angeles to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has been postponed indefinitely. SeaPort Airlines of Portland, Ore., notified Port of Port Angeles staff late Tuesday it is postponing the start of its scheduled air service from William R. Fairchild International Airport to Sea-Tac indefinitely, citing a pilot shortage. SeaPort could not be reached for comment Thursday. The company’s news release did not suggest how long the postponement might last. The airline also is postponing its planned service from Moses Lake to Seattle and Portland, Ore. Regularly scheduled air service from Fairchild to Sea-Tac was set to begin March 1.
he Port of Port Angeles says it will continue searching for ways to restore air service.
T
days on single-engine, nine-passenger Cessna Caravan turboprop aircraft similar to those flown by Kenmore Air. Kenmore abandoned service to Port Angeles in November 2014. Port of Port Angeles officials have sought another carrier since then. Besides SeaPort, Alaska Airlines had considered flying the Port Angeles-Seattle route, but with a single flight by a 76-passenger Bombardier Q-400 twinengine turboprop. Community officials, including Port Commissioner Colleen McAleer, have said they would prefer more frequent flights by smaller aircraft to increase flexiFacilities lease bility for connections at Sea-Tac. Other possible carriers had No contract has been signed included Skywest and the return between the port and SeaPort at this time, Karen Goschen, the of Kenmore Air. port’s interim executive director, Left in a lurch said Thursday. Instead, the port was “in the The Port of Port Angeles will process of negotiating a facilities continue searching for ways to lease,” she said. restore air service to Port Angeles, In October, the airline Goschen said. announced it would begin service TURN TO AIRLINE/A4 with five 40-minute flights most
CEO: Inslee’s initiative will impact OMC Jefferson, OMC, Forks are included While the hospitals in the community of health remain independent, they work together under one umbrella to achieve jointly defined goals. “The Olympic Community of Health will explore priorities for a Regional Health Improvement plan, and we will work collaboratively to reach the established goals,” Bobby L. Beeman, OMC’s communications manager, said Thursday. Beeman said the initiative is in the planning stages.
BY CHRIS MCDANIEL PENINSULA DAILY NEWS
PORT ANGELES — Forks Community Hospital, Jefferson Healthcare and Olympic Medical Center will join in an Accountable Community of Health system as part of Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed Healthier Washington initiative. The Olympic Community of Health, as it is known, received official state designation Dec. 22 and includes hospitals in Clallam, Jefferson and Kitsap counties. The Olympic Community of Major changes Health is one of nine accountable In the coming three to four communities throughout the years, “we expect major changes state.
to Medicaid, completely changing the way we are paid,” Eric Lewis, OMC chief executive officer, said during Wednesday’s regular hospital board of commissioners meeting. “This is really big stuff. I think all reimbursements are at risk.” In 2015, about 17 percent of patients who visited the hospital were Medicaid recipients, Lewis said. The state intends “to go away from cost reimbursement to a new payment methodology which could be more like fixed budgets,” he said. That could mean OMC and other hospitals would get a fixed fee for service instead of being paid for each patient visit,
Lewis said. “ T h e y might just mail us $1 million a month,” he said. T h e r e would be “no more fees for service” but a fixed “budget Lewis to take care of all the medical needs of all the Medicaid enrollees in our service area,” he said. “That is a lot of risk. They want to transfer risk to providers.” After implementation, “there will just be one bucket of Medicaid dollars going out to enrollees,” Lewis said.
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According to the state Health Care Authority, the goal of the accountable communities is to establish collaborative decisionmaking on a regional basis to improve health and health systems, bring together all sectors that contribute to health to develop shared priorities and strategies for population health, and to drive physical and behavioral health care integration by making financing and delivery system adjustments, starting with Medicaid. TURN
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