ARLINGTON — Cascade Valley Hospital, an independent, tax-supported hospital, has announced plans for a business deal that would have the hospital leased and operated by Skagit Regional Health in Mount Vernon.
Plans also call for the two hospitals to join up in a long-term business deal with University of Washington Medicine. The Seattle-based health care organization would help with recruiting physicians and other health care workers for both hospitals and improve access to specialists.
“Having UW Medicine take an active role in the medical care delivered here in Arlington provides great benefit to our patients,” said Clark Jones, Cascade Valley’s chief executive. The business deal would create a health care network in which patients can get a wide variety of medical services and treatments for everything from the common cold to the heart transplants conducted at the University of Washington Medical Center, he said.
“The vision is for UW specialists to rotate through our community,” Jones said. In an announcement sent to Cascade employees Thursday, Jones said there also were plans for the opening of a UW Neighborhood Clinic in the community.
The memo also says that after Cascade staff complete employment background checks, drug screens and an application, “our goal is for Skagit Regional Health to offer employment to current Cascade employees.”
The agreement between the three health care organizations was officially announced Friday. At this point it is an outline of how they plan to work together. A more detailed, formal agreement is a minimum of six months away, Jones said. The three-way business agreement may need approval from the state Department of Health.
The three organizations have previously worked together on other projects. For example, the opening of a $12 million medical clinic in Smokey Point in 2012 was a joint project of the Arlington and Mount Vernon public hospitals.
Both Cascade and Skagit joined UW Medicine last year as part of a larger network to treat Boeing employees, promising to provide better care while saving consumers money.
It will be several months before more details of the proposal are spelled out, such as how much Skagit will pay the Arlington hospital district to lease its building or whether it will charge to oversee its business operations.
However, a similar agreement was made with another public hospital in Snohomish County, the former Stevens Hospital. Seattle’s Swedish Health Services took over management of the tax-supported Edmonds hospital in 2010. Swedish also agreed to pay $600,000 in monthly lease payments to the public hospital district.
Gregg Davidson, chief executive of Skagit Regional Health, said that one of the reasons his organization was interested in leasing and managing the Arlington hospital is the pressure that health care organizations face to keep costs in check.
Under the health care law known as Obamacare, the federal government will be paying less for services than organizations are now paid, he said. Economics will make it increasingly more difficult for smaller hospitals to remain independent, Davidson said.
Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com
Here’s an overview of the three hospitals involved in the proposed business agreement
Cascade Valley Hospital – Arlington
Operating budget: $49 million.
450 full- and part-time employees
Skagit Regional Health – Mount Vernon
Operating budget: $275 million.
2,000 full- and part-time employees
University of Washington Medicine – Seattle
Operating budget: $4.1 billion
More than 25,000 full- and part-time employees
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