Local News

Dr. Richard Avalon has asked to be released from his contract at the Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic.
Avalon made the request Tuesday in a letter to the Wahkiakum County Board of Commissioners.
According to a statement from the commissioners’ office, Avalon plans “to relocate for family and professional reasons.”
The Eagle received a redacted copy of the letter on Wednesday morning with a paragraph cut out. Commission Clerk Holly Pfenniger said commissioners had consulted with Prosecuting Attorney Dan Bigelow, who concluded the letter contained personal information about Avalon and his family that could be kept confidential. The board apparently discussed the letter in executive session at the end of the Tuesday meeting and took no action but subsequently issued a press release early Tuesday afternoon.
The letter states, "I wish to take a job with Valley Medical Center. I would like my last day to be September 30, 2007. I would like to be released from the contract under Section 3 'just cause due to involuntary deterioration of a family member's health.'"
Avalon is the senior physician at the clinic. His contract and that of colleague Dr. Keith Wright both expire at the end of 2008.

In their statement, commissioners asked the public to honor and respect Avalon’s decision.
“Dr. Avalon has practiced in Cathlamet for the past 24 years and has provided services to multiple generations of families in our county,” Commissioner Tom Doumit said in the statement. “He should be honored for his dedication and outstanding medical service.”
The statement added that the commissioners would work with “the clinic management team” to investigate “alternative medical provider options and will ask the newly formed clinic advisory group to pursue clinician recruitment efforts.”

The resignation comes as clinic management and county officials are struggling with a predicted revenue shortfall of $200,000 or more at the clinic.
Word of Avalon’s intent to join another practice became public last Thursday. He had been offered a position at a Seattle clinic and he planned to review that contract on Monday. In another letter to the commissioners dated July 5, he sought release from his contract so that he would free to consider and possibly sign the contract with a Seattle firm he visited Monday.
Commissioners Doumit and Dan Cothren—George Trott is fishing in Alaska and is unable to attend—called an emergency meeting Thursday to discuss the letter.
Several people attended and urged the board to deny Avalon’s request. Bill Faubion, Carol Wegdahl, Wally Wright and Duncan Cruikshank argued that Avalon’s work in the clinic and in countywide healthcare field was too important for the community to lose.
They and others urged the board to propose to Avalon that they would restore a part-time registered nurse position that had been cut in June in an effort to lower clinic expenses.

Doumit and Cothren took no action that day but said they would try to talk to Avalon and reconvene on Friday.
Coming back into session Friday, Cothren and Doumit said Avalon’s position seemed clear: He wanted to leave the clinic. Avalon was free to talk with whoever he wanted they said, and they took no further action on the issue.
They passed a motion telling Avalon they were agreeable to his early release providing that contractual financial matters can be resolved.

On Monday, the board received a letter dated July 6 from the recently appointed clinic advisory group. The letter urged them to restore the nurse position.
“In light of the ongoing turmoil surrounding the clinic and its current operations and questionable future, the Clinic Advisory Group strongly recommends that the Board of County Commissioners reconsider the decision to reduce staffing at the clinic and reinstate the funding for the .6 FTE Registered Nurse,” the letter said.
Doumit and Cothren declined to reconsider the reduction in force.
“This (move to cut clinic staff to reduce the operating deficit) has been out there for years,” Cothren said, referring to a consultant’s study done when the county acquired the clinic at the end of 2004. “We’ve had long discussions with the doctors and revisited this many times.
“Right now, I’m going to stay with my position.”
Doumit, the temporary chair in Trott’s absence, agreed. The recommendation for the cut came to the board from the clinic management, he said.