PORT ANGELES — Clallam County’s aging patients aren’t the only people straining the region’s health care system
It’s our aging doctors, too.
The region’s high percentage of elders isn’t likely to drop as baby boomers begin to retire and relocate to a place that’s neither too hot in the summer nor too cold in the winter.
The same supply-side dynamic doesn’t apply, however, to primary care providers.
When Clallam County’s doctors retire, who will replace them?
More to the point, who will want to?
Clallam County already has twice the number of senior citizens as the rest of the nation — 30 percent compared to 15 percent — according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
People 60 and older number about 20,000 here.
That means more and more patients will depend on Medicare to furnish their health care protection.
Medicare reimburses doctors only about 26 percent of their customary charges.
That means fewer and fewer primary care physicians will want to hang out their shingles in Clallam County.
The conundrum is what Olympic Medical Center is trying to solve with its task force, Making Primary Care Viable in Clallam County.
OMC commissioners and the public Wednesday will get the first of two reports from the task force that includes OMC administrators and commissioners as well as doctors and citizens.
The medical center already provided a short-term fix after Virginia Mason Medical Center of Seattle announced a year ago that it would close its satellite clinics in Port Angeles.
