SEQUIM — Since identifying a looming physician shortage four years ago, Olympic Medical Center has recruited or helped retain 35 doctors in a wide range of specialties, ensuring — for now — that Peninsula residents have access to the health care services they need, the Sequim City Council was told.
There’s concern, however, that the situation is not sustainable, said Olympic CEO Mike Glenn, who addressed council members recently.
The recruitment and retention efforts, which involve subsidizing practices or employing doctors outright, cost the hospital a lot of money. Furthermore, the patient demographics locally are skewed heavily toward Medicare and Medicaid, public programs that don’t come close to covering the costs of services provided by doctors or the hospital, Glenn said.
Glenn touched on the issue with the council during a presentation on OMC’s expansion in Sequim, which will include nearly 50,000 square feet of new space for oncology, radiology, cardiac and laboratory services.
Construction is set to begin this month.
Those services — seen as vital for Sequim because of its concentrated elderly population — are also key to keeping doctors in the community, said Rhonda LoPresti, OMC’s marketing director.
Outpatient services
More than half of most hospitals’ income comes from outpatient services such as MRIs, CT scans and lab work, she said.
Those profitable services can cover losses in money-hemorrhaging divisions like the emergency room, which must take all patients, regardless of their ability to pay.
But to offer those services, the hospital must have doctors in the community to provide them — and people in the community must use them instead of going elsewhere.
“This really wasn’t what hospitals did 10 to 20 years ago around the country,” LoPresti said.
“Now there is a need to support the physician coming into the community, and staying in the community.”
