Health center votes yes for county clinic

The board of directors of the Family Health Center (FHC) in Longview on Tuesday voted to begin negotiations with Wahkiakum County to provide primary care services in the county.

Wahkiakum County officials have long been looking for an answer to the Wahkiakum Family Health Clinic's financial instability. In May, commissioners voted to ask the family health center to take over the clinic. Since then, health center analysts have been considering whether or not the health center, which operates clinics in Longview, Woodland and Long Beach under a federal program, could have a financially viable clinic in Cathlamet.

According to a Tuesday evening statement from Center Administrator Dian Cooper, the "FHC board has identified certain practices in the county currently that are incompatible with FHC's scope of services and which must be negotiated by the community if FHC is to be successful in meeting the primary care needs in Wahkiakum County."

Commissioner Lisa Marsyla said she had talked to Cooper, and those issues haven't yet been listed. Marsyla expects to meet with Cooper later this week, and the county and health center will form teams to negotiate the transition.

If all goes well, the transfer should take place around the end of the year, Cooper has said.

On Tuesday, family practice clinic Business Manager Crystal Stanley reported that the clinic ran a deficit in its July operations. The clinic had covered its payroll and expenses in June.

Commissioner Marsyla said the clinic will be operating with one nurse practitioner, Margie Godfrey, and a registered nurse after August. The contract of physician's assistant Mike Meno expires at the end of the month, and he will go to work for a Clatsop County clinic.