Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Commissioners commit to clinic funding through ’08

July 26, 2007

Wahkiakum County commissioners on Tuesday voted to guarantee $325,000 funding for the Wahkiakum Family Practice Clinic through 2008.

The move came at the request of members of an advisory task force the board appointed last month to make recommendations about staffing and operation at the clinic.

Task force spokesperson Sandi Benbrook-Rieder told the board that the guaranteewas needed to restore morale among clinic staff and confidence among the public that the county would be able to get the clinic on solid footing.

Task force members have been meeting monthly since they were appointed. They met Monday night and completed a draft of their mission statement, key principles, goals and objectives, and work plan. They hope to have that finished by the commissioners’ next meeting, August 7, Benbrook-Rieder said.

The commitment to funding also gives the task force the footing it needs to recruit clinicians, she said.

Dr. Richard Avalon has tendered his resignation, effective September 30. For some time after that, the clinic will need a visiting physician to work with Dr. Keith Wright and Nurse Practitioner Margie Godfrey.

In the meantime, the task force will evaluate their own research and the recommendations of three analyses, two by private consultants and one by the state Department of Health, on operations and staffing levels. Then they’ll make recommendations of their own to the commissioners.

“We’re looking for short term stability and long term sustainability,” Benbrook-Rieder said.

Support for the commitment didn’t come easily for board Chair George Trott.

Just returned from several weeks of commercial fishing in Alaska, he had missed discussions of the past few weeks. He also resisted giving the task force a blank check that the county couldn’t cover.

Earlier Tuesday, the board met with Treasurer Paula Holloway, Auditor Diane Tischer and clinic Business Manager Kathy Patterson to review the county’s financial picture.

Holloway reported that the county’s budget is on track, but it now appears the revenue off state-managed trust timberland will be a bit lower than budget, $900,000.

This means the county will most likely have to borrow against its reserves to cover its own payroll and other expenses at the end of the year, Holloway said.

Commissioners have asked department heads to present ways to reduce their budgets by 10 percent; proposals are due at the August department heads meeting, Holloway said.

In the end, Commissioners Tom Doumit and Dan Cothren said they were ready to adopt the resolution requested by the task force.

Trott agreed to it being specific in its amounts. Benbrook-Rieder suggested the task force members who were present meet a few minutes with Holloway to set an amount. Following that meeting, Benbrook-Rieder presented a revised version of the proposal, stating the county would commit to at least $100,000 more for this year and as much as $225,000 for 2008. Holloway had agreed that it would be feasible for the county to cover those deficits.

With the financial commitment now specific, Trott said he could support the proposal. Doumit moved to adopt it; Cothren seconded, and the motion passed.

 
 

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