PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center has been working with health care consulting firm Chartis to help it address repeated failures in meeting Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services standards, leading to numerous termination letters that have threatened to end its contract with the agency.
Liz Uraga, OMC’s director of quality support services, told the board of commissioners Wednesday night that Chartis had made numerous recommendations on how to remedy the hospital’s violations — primarily in the area of documentation — that have been identified by the state Department of Health, starting with an initial survey in February.
“They’ve provided a lot of insight into why we haven’t succeeded so far and what we can change,” Uraga said. “They’re providing us with policy language that’s been tested in other facilities, as well as strategies for improvement that they’ve seen in other facilities with similar problems from similar causes, so it’s been really helpful.”
Chartis has assisted in simplifying policies that “had become overly complex, overly prescriptive” over time, in one case reducing a policy on restraints from nine to less than three pages, she said.
It also drafted a plan of correction for OMC to submit to CMS for the next unannounced revisit from the Department of Health.
Mandatory in-person training for providers and clinical staff on documentation procedures created by Chartis and taught by OMC staff has been implemented as well.
Interim CEO Mark Gregson made resolving OMC’s regulatory issues his No. 1 priority after he arrived at OMC on Aug. 20.
“We’re looking forward to the survey, and we are going to do everything we can to be very, very prepared, satisfy those issues and concerns and move on,” Gregson said.
He said he is in the process of developing a business plan based on conversations with OMC senior management and observations that is responsive, focuses on the hospital’s priorities, and monitors tasks and actions that need to be resolved.
Partnership
The next step in OMC’s potential partnership with UW Medicine is underway with a number of companies submitting proposals to conduct a third-party operational assessment, Gregson said.
A special meeting likely will be called at which the board will vote to approve one of the firms.
Commissioner Tom Oblak asked what the maximum amount the CEO could sign contracts for without board approval, as well as details about how often Gregson is at OMC. The clarifications related to statements made during public comment about both subjects.
Board chair Ann Henninger said the CEO can authorize payments of up to $249,000. An OMC representative confirmed the Chartis agreement is for six-weeks at $248,000 — $1,000 under the authorization threshold.
As for Gregson’s’s schedule, Henninger said, “He is working five days a week, it’s just not always on-site.”
She said WittKieffer, the executive search firm OMC is paying $12,500 a week for Gregson’s services, is paying Gregson’s travel to his home in Arizona every other weekend. OMC is paying for his travel on the alternate weekends.
Open positions
Heather Delplain, OMC’s administrative director of human resources, reported that open positions have dropped almost 5o percent over the past two years, from 282 in June 2023 to 142 in June 2025. Its nurse vacancy rate — the number of positions that are currently unfilled compared to the total of positions that are available — has been halved as well, down from 15 percent on June 1, 2023, to 7.6 percent on June 1, 2025.
Recent hires have helped reduce the number of travelers — providers who are more costly than permanent employees but who are essential to providing services to patients. Their numbers have dropped 64 percent, from 62 on June 1, 2023, to 22 this year.
External hires are “always big wins for us because it means we’re not hiring travelers for those jobs,” Delplain said.
New CFO
Dennis Stillman was introduced Wednesday as the new interim chief financial officer, replacing Lorraine Cannon, who resigned at the end of August. Stillman, a Bremerton native, is a former UW Medical Center CFO and health care finance instructor.
Dr. Colin Wolslegel became OMC’s medical chief of staff on Sept. 1. He replaced Dr. Jonathon Freezer, whose last day at the hospital is Oct. 7.
Meanwhile, the board delayed approval of the hospital’s contract with radiology provider Radia Imaging for the second time since Ryan Combs, OMC’s chief operating officer, introduced the measure on Aug. 20. According to an OMC representative, the terms in the contract are still being finalized.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
