PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson Healthcare commissioners on Wednesday are expected to become the second public hospital board on the North Olympic Peninsula to approve an affiliation agreement with Swedish Medical Center in Seattle.
The agreement is on the agenda for 3:30 p.m. when commissioners meet in the hospital’s auditorium at 834 Sheridan Ave., Port Townsend.
If the agreement is approved, then Jefferson Healthcare would join the Swedish Health Network probably sometime after the first of the year, said Jill Buhler, president of the hospital commission.
More work would need to be done to mesh the systems of the 25-bed Jefferson Healthcare hospital in Port Townsend and the giant Seattle medical complex, Buhler said Monday.
“We want to do it right so that when the day comes, it will be seamless and our patients will have the benefit of everything from Day One,” Buhler said.
The day will be marked with a celebration, she added.
“We want to have a rollout for the community to welcome Swedish and have an open house,” Buhler said Monday.
She said that one of the key benefits for Jefferson Healthcare would be access to Swedish Medical Center’s best practices procedures.
“We are really focusing on quality for our patients,” Buhler said.
“Swedish excels in the area.
“They are going to help us continue to provide quality, safe care for our patients.”
Jefferson Healthcare will pay $75,000 affiliation fee to Swedish in 2012, Buhler said.
After that first year, the fee would be reassessed, she said.
“The savings will more than offset what we spend in the affiliation fee,” she said.
Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles on Oct. 19 became the first Peninsula hospital to approve the affiliation with a unanimous vote of commissioners in favor of the “umbrella agreement.”
OMC became the first member of the Swedish Health Network on Nov. 1, and will pay $120,000 to Swedish for the affiliation in 2012.
The governing board of Forks Community Hospital, a 45-bed facilty that includes a nursing home, originally had been expected to consider approval of the agreement this month.
The commissioners had not done so by Monday, said Administrator Camille Scott through her executive assistant, Tracy Gillett.
“We are still in the process of evaluating parts of the contract with them,” Gillett said Scott said.
“She doesn’t know” when it will go before the commissioners,” Gillett said.
The 20-year contractual relationship with Seattle-based Swedish Medical Center is not a merger.
Under its terms, North Olympic Peninsula hospitals remain independent and community-owned, becoming the first members of the Swedish Health Network.
The network would provide local patients with care they can’t get on the Peninsula.
Patient are to be referred to Swedish for care unavailable at home, and Swedish will send them back to their primary care doctor for follow-up.
At the same time, Swedish will help the Peninsula hospitals improve and remain financially viable through expanded clinical services, Epic electronic medical records and a buying group, officials have said.
Expanded service may include neurology, cardiology, sleep medicine and endocrinology. Separate contracts will be signed as the affiliation takes shape.
The agreement has its roots in a joint meeting of OMC, Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital commissioners and administrators in Chelan in June 2010.
The three decided to send a request for proposals to seven Puget Sound-area hospitals.
All seven responded, and after examination of all seven, the Peninsula hospitals signed nonbinding letters of intent to partner with Swedish last spring.
In October, Swedish announced a plan to affiliate with Providence Health & Services, one of the other major Western Washington hospital systems.
Scott, OMC CEO Eric Lewis and Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn each have said that a Swedish-Providence affiliation will not affect their own agreements with Swedish.
Swedish and Providence are both not-for-profit entities.
Providence would keep its name and Catholic identity, and Swedish would keep its name and remain a non-religious organization.
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Managing Editor/News Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3531 or leah.leach@peninsuladailynews.com.
Reporter Rob Ollikainen contributed to this report.
