PeaceHealth: please put it in writing | Editorial

Published 2:39 pm Tuesday, October 2, 2012

It’s a huge step forward for local health care, and we need to know the game plan.

San Juan County deserves an explanation about how decisions regarding the future of publicly funded health care will be determined at Peace Island Medical Center.

After all, 50 years is a long time.

Given that the opening of PIMC is just around the corner, the San Juan Island Hospital Commission ought to clear up the uncertainty that now surrounds its relationship and 50-year contract with PeaceHealth, sooner rather than later.

Health care for island residents is poised for a monumental change when PIMC opens its doors.

The benefits that PeaceHealth’s 10-bed critical access hospital will provide are many: expanded primary care and specialty clinic, a 24-hour emergency room and chemotherapy and cancer services.

The implications of this extend to more than just the San Juan Island community. This is our county’s very first hospital and cancer care center.

PeaceHealth’s prospective partnership with Franciscan Health Systems, owned by health care giant Catholic Health Initiatives of Denver, Colo., is worrisome. How would decisions affecting medical services at PIMC be made should that partnership become a reality? Who would call the shots?

Though we have faith in PeaceHealth’s track record and in the assurances of its officials, situations can change over time. And, the hospital commission, in its contract with PeaceHealth, committed handing over roughly $1 million in local property  tax revenue each year to help subsidize PIMC operations.

Bottom line: the public deserves to know what it will be getting for its money.