PORT ANGELES – The Volunteers in Medicine of the Olympics Clinic has joined the ranks of needy medical institutions.
Heretofore free to uninsured or underinsured patients, it will start asking $5 donations today.
Gina Steinmetz, RN, clinic administrator, said donations were needed due to “a number of things.
“There’s the growth in numbers of our patient population, and funding is tight around the community.”
The VIMO Clinic isn’t alone.
Officials at Olympic Medical Center – a major clinic supporter – have said they may need to ask voters to raise the hospital’s levy in 2008 to sustain OMC as a public hospital under local control.
A major private player in Northwest health care – Seattle’s Virginia Mason Medical Center – closed its Port Angeles satellite clinic in the spring of 2006, citing $10 million in losses over 10 years.
