PORT ANGELES –Virginia Mason clinic’s own patients could raise the necessary cash to keep the facility open, a Port Angeles woman has suggested.
Penney Thiemann received a round of applause when she shared the idea with about 90 people who packed the Olympic Medical Center commission meeting Wednesday night at the hospital.
Thiemann will continue brainstorming possible solutions next week with anyone who is concerned about the clinic’s closure.
She will host an open meeting at 11 a.m. Monday in the Port Angeles Senior Services and Community Center, 328 E. Seventh St.
“It’s time to stop discussing and time to start a plan,” she told the audience Wednesday.
The clinic serves 19,000 patients. If 1,000 of them put up $1,000, Thiemann said, they could raise much of the $1 million to $2 million the doctors say they need to tide them through the transition from Virginia Mason employees into private practice.
The clinic’s corporate parent in Seattle reportedly has offered only $300,000 to help Port Angeles patients find health care.
“If the issue is money, let’s raise it,” Thiemann said.
