Clinic exchange moving forward

The proposal to have Cowlitz Family Health Center take over Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic is moving forward.

County Commissioner Lisa Marsyla on Tuesday relayed a report from Health Center Executive Director Dian Cooper that an initial financial analysis of the clinic's patient base and potential revenue showed no problems.

The agency will now conduct a more in-depth analysis, Marsyla said; a report isn't expected till early July.

County officials had expected to hear a decision next week after the Tuesday meeting of the health center board of directors, but the second analysis won't be ready by then, she said.

"Dian Cooper said they would call a special meeting in the first or second week of July, after they received the report," Marsyla said.

At Marsyla's suggestion, commissioners voted to grant Cooper's request that Wahkiakum County share in the cost of the financial analysis, estimated around $3,000.

County commissioners voted in May to ask the health center to consider taking over the clinic as the clinic's financial troubles continued.

The county took over the clinic in January, 2005, from PeaceHealth. Initially, two doctors ran the clinic with a billing clerk. Those doctors left, and deficits continued to mount. In August, 2007, the commissioners appointed an advisory board of citizens with experience in the health care and other business fields and charged them with developing an operating plan to put the clinic on a stable basis. They turned that board into a governance board last year with more management authority.

However, as deficits continued this spring and county revenues also declined, Commissioners Dan Cothren and Blair Brady voted to approach the health center.

Marsyla noted that the clinic received sufficient revenue and was able to meet its June payroll on its own, without using county money.