Last week, the Vashon Healthcare District Commissioners held a special annual meeting, on Zoom, to report on the primary care services provided by the Sea Mar Vashon Medical Clinic.

Commissioners LeeAnn Brown, Eric Pryne, Wendy Noble, Don Wolczko and Tom Langland were in attendance, as well as district Superintendent Eric Jensen. Numerous community members also joined the virtual meeting held on Oct. 14.

In discussing Sea Mar’s operations, Jensen discussed the clinic’s practices in contrast to its predecessor, Neighborcare.

Jensen said that Sea Mar has shown improvement over Neighborcare. For instance, Sea Mar shares performance data and operational changes with the Healthcare District, which is something that was not received from Neighborcare. That data shows high marks for patient satisfaction with Sea Mar, with most scores ranging in the 90s.

However, patient satisfaction did drop off in two categories: appointment wait and provider wait. Sea Mar patients rated appointment wait an 88.5 and provider wait was rated an 81.6.

Since Sea Mar opened its doors in Nov. 2020, one of the focuses for Brown has been to increase clinic utilization among islanders.

“We realized early on that we needed to focus on outreach,” said Brown. “We want this clinic to be here for the long term.”

Among other actions, the committee has distributed flyers about the clinic at Vashon IGA and Thriftway, spoken at community groups, and produced public service announcements for Voice of Vashon.

Noble reported on the Clinic Relations Committee, which serves as a liaison between the Healthcare District, Sea Mar, and the community to address topics including clinic staffing, patient concerns and feedback, finances and other needs.

The annual financial review with Sea Mar will take place this month, with overall expenses to remain the same or only slightly increased for 2022. In November, the Healthcare District’s budget and levy rate will be set.

Sea Mar has committed to a second contract year on Vashon and is currently in negotiation with the Healthcare District on the level of support it will require for its second year.

Pryne discussed upcoming initiatives for the district, including $3 million re-appropriated to Sea Mar for the purpose of building a new clinic or remodeling the existing structure at Sunrise Ridge.

Originally, this money was appropriated to Neighborcare in the 2017-2019 Washington state biennal capital budget. However, the funds were re-appropriated in 2021 to Sea Mar. These re-appropriated funds expire as of June 30, 2023, adding some but not immediate urgency to discussions Pryne said were already underway.

Pryne also introduced work the Healthcare District has done in order to protect the district’s levy, as upcoming levies from King County Roads and Libraries may threaten the district. The Healthcare district has also worked with King County Councilmember Joe McDermott to include language to protect hospital districts like Vashon’s.

According to Pryne, there has also been a formation of “all-district information-sharing meetings” in response to islanders’ frustrations that taxing districts were not speaking and sharing information with one another. So far, two meetings have occurred, with another meeting planned.

Islanders also spoke up at the meeting.

Commissioners first answered two questions submitted in the chat function of Zoom. The first questing concerned the fiscal impact of COVID testing. According to the Commissioners, COVID-19 testing is offered as part of an office visit and rapid tests with a 30-minute turnaround. Patients are then billed for the visit and test, which is sent to insurance.

The second question concerned Sea Mar’s contract. The Commissioners explained that while Sea Mar’s contract was year-to-year, they did not have any plans to change providers at this time.

The meeting was then opened up for additional community members in the meeting to comment.

Hilary Emmer asked about Sea Mar’s policy for handling patients who are wishing to pursue Death with Dignity. Emmer said she was asking a question about this issue based on a conversation she had with an islander about the subject of SeaMar’s responsiveness in assisting islanders who wish to avail themselves of the law.

Langland and Noble said they wanted to speak with Emmer one-on-one regarding the issue in order to “dig deeper.”

Emmer also raised a concern about the lack of Spanish speakers at the clinic, citing again her conversation with an islander who she said told her that many Spanish speakers on Vashon don’t feel welcome at the clinic.

Earlier in the meeting, Noble noted that the clinic is in need of bilingual staff, but is having difficulty attracting English-Spanish speaking staff to the clinic due to its island location. However, she said, this is still an issue the clinic is continuing to work on.

Islander Will Lockwood commented that he ultimately left the Sea Mar clinic because of poor service, and goes off-island for his medical care.

“[I’m] destined to not have medical care on-island,” said Lockwood during the meeting.

Lockwood’s wife is still a patient at the clinic, but Lockwood reported issues with his wife’s lab results being lost.

“[This is] not what I want for medical care,” said Lockwood.

Lynne Ameling also reported issues with Sea Mar’s lab, saying she had issues getting timely lab results from the clinic.

According to the commissioners, lab tests are picked up by a courier and are then taken off-island for testing. This process does take longer than at larger off-island facilities, they admitted.