The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Data from the countywide survey on the Family Practice Clinic have been compiled.

Of the 2200 surveys sent to county residents, 421 surveys, or 19 percent, were returned. More than 810 individual and family members were represented in the results.

Three hundred and twenty six surveys were from people who used the clinic and 95 of the surveys were from citizens that do not. Eighty-three percent of respondents indicated that the clinic was important to the community. Sixty-eight percent of respondents desired a level of service that would require some amount of subsidy. Their choices for the subsidy were 48 percent favored some form of patient fee, 32 percent favored a combination of taxes and fees, 14 percent favored a tax with the remaining six percent against any form of tax.

The survey responses indicated that most people were comfortable being seen by both doctors and nurse practitioners as 74 percent of the surveys indicated that seeing the next available clinician was acceptable.

The survey contained the responses of 46 families that go to Kaiser and another 49 families that utilize other clinics. Of these 95 families, 39 said the clinic was important to them. There were 240 surveys that included comments. The most commonly mentioned themes were focused on the unfairness of taxing to subsidize the clinic, the importance of keeping the clinic for the community, and the desirability of returning the clinic to private control.

The Clinic Advisory Board is considering all of the survey responses as they develop recommendations that will be presented to the county commissioners in March.