Olympic Medical Center and Jefferson Healthcare have tabbed Swedish Medical Center as a potential affiliate for patient referrals, clinical services and technology.
OMC commissioners voted 7-0 Wednesday night to authorize its chief executive officer, Eric Lewis, to negotiate a nonbinding letter of intent with the Seattle-based medical center.
“We also voted unanimously to do that,” said Jefferson Healthcare board member Jill Buhler.
Forks Community Hospital commissioners will take a similar vote Tuesday.
OMC, Jefferson Healthcare and Forks Community Hospital held a joint board meeting in June in which they decided to look for a contractual relationship with a Puget Sound-area hospital for a mutually beneficial partnership.
The “tertiary affiliate” will take referrals from the local hospitals for specialized care that isn’t available on the Peninsula.
In return, the affiliate will help the rural hospitals recruit doctors and implement such improvements as information technology and electronic medical records.
The affiliate will also refer patients back to Peninsula hospitals for follow-up care.
“This is not about giving up our independence,” Lewis said at the commissioners’ meeting.
“It is forming a contractual relationship with the tertiary medical center for certain services.”
Commissioners and administrators from all three Peninsula hospital districts stressed earlier this year that patient choice and physician choice would remain in place should the affiliation with Swedish be approved by the boards.
“The main thing, obviously, is the patient always has a choice on where they want to go,” Buhler said.
Jefferson Healthcare CEO Mike Glenn said in a statement: “This is an important step in the process. The selection of Swedish Medical Center as our Seattle-based partner will bring patients of Jefferson County much-needed access to tertiary services and technology.”
Lewis described a “team effort” among the Peninsula hospitals.
He said the affiliation, which would be the first of its kind in the state, is about “beginning to transform the health care delivery system and bringing more value to our patients.”
OMC hopes to sign a nonbinding letter of intent with Swedish by April 20, hold public meetings in May and have a final agreement in place by June 15.
Those deadlines could be extended for OMC to get the best deal for the community, Lewis added.
Forks Community Hospital CEO Camille Scott said in a statement: “The coming-together of health care services for one goal — quality patient care — is the outcome we expect through these partnerships.”
The three Peninsula hospital districts sent requests for information to seven Puget Sound-area medical centers in early September. All seven responded.
The list of seven was narrowed to three in November.
Along with Swedish, the finalists were Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton and Providence Health & Services, based in Seattle.
“They’re all good organizations, or we wouldn’t have asked them in the first place,” Buhler said.
Central to the move toward a tertiary partnership is the need for electronic medical records.
There are financial incentives to have electronic medical records, or EMR, in place by 2013 and penalties for not having them by 2015.
“Having the same electronic medical records will bring efficiencies and ease of moving referrals back and forth,” Lewis said.
John Beitzel, an OMC commissioner and tertiary task force member, said Swedish is well-positioned to help OMC install Epic — the dominant EMR software in the Northwest — in a timely fashion at a manageable cost.
Swedish was the unanimous recommendation of the OMC administration, physician council, medical staff executive committee and board task force. The commissioners on the task force are Beitzel, Jim Leskinovitch and Dr. John Miles.
Jefferson Healthcare is also working toward nontertiary partnerships with Harrison Medical Center because of its proximity to Bremerton.
“It’s really exciting,” Buhler said of the possible affiliation with Swedish.
“It’s a whole new thing.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
