PORT ANGELES — Olympic Medical Center and Virginia Mason family doctors have announced an “agreement in principle” to affiliate the clinic’s resources with the medical center.
The plan, said negotiators from both sides, will “ensure the people of our community seamless access to the primary care they need.”
The announcement came Friday afternoon, less than two days after medical center administrators and the doctors said they remained at impasse over several issues.
The doctors last week also said the clinic might have to close for a week or two to accomplish the transition.
But according to Friday’s statement, the clinic at 433 E. Eighth St. will remain open under the name Olympic Medical Center Primary Care Clinic after April 30.
Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, the clinic’s corporate parent, will abandon the operation May 1 after losing $10 million since buying the site in 1995.
Few additional details would emerge over the weekend, Bobby Beeman, medical center public relations coordinator, said Friday.
“We’ve got to put our heads down and move forward and try to eliminate some of the distractions that have been going on,” she said.
Beeman said more information will be released at the medical center commission’s special meeting at 6 p.m. Wednesday in the hospital, 939 Caroline St.
Virginia Mason’s Eighth Street clinic serves 12,700 primary care patients.
