Monroe to lose Group Health

The Group Health clinic in Monroe, the smallest clinic operated by the health care cooperative in Western Washington, will close its doors April 4.

The 3,400 patients who use the clinic will have to go to other Group Health clinics if they wish to continue to get their medical care from the organization. The two closest are in Everett, 14 miles away, or the Northshore clinic in Bothell, 15 miles away.

Staff members were notified that the clinic will close on Tuesday, spokeswoman Lee Tucker Therriault said.

Group Health’s Monroe clinic is based at Valley General Hospital, where it leases 6,700 square feet, part of which is shared with an obstetrics group. It opened in 1996.

Group Health officials declined to say how much they pay to lease the space, but hospital officials said the organization pays about $76,000 a year to the hospital.

Peter Adler, an executive director who oversees the co-op’s Western Washington medical centers, said the Monroe clinic wasn’t closing because it was losing money.

"It’s much less efficient than larger medical centers where we can gain economics of scale," he said.

"We’re feeling the effects of the recession, like all business in the state, and not expecting growth in 2003 as a result," Adler said. "The question of whether we are more or less efficient becomes much more relevant."

Mark Judy, chief executive of Monroe’s hospital and former chief of one of Everett’s two hospitals prior to their 1994 merger, said patient volumes likely played a role.

"They haven’t had growth here," Judy said of the Monroe clinic. "It’s been 3,000 members for several years."

Judy said he first learned of the pending closure from a Group Health manager on Monday. He said the closing of the clinic could be an issue for the co-op’s older Medicare patients, whose drive to a clinic could increase to 20 to 25 minutes each way.

More than half, and perhaps as much as 70 percent, of the Monroe patients are expected to get their care at the Everett clinic after the Monroe clinic closes, with the remainder expected to go to Northshore, said Dr. Paul Fletcher, a district medical director.

The Monroe clinic has 10 employees: one physician’s assistant, a part-time pediatrician and a family practice doctor, four nurses, a pharmacist, someone who does lab work, and a receptionist.

Plans call for physicians and the physician’s assistant to be split between the Everett and Northshore facilities, Fletcher said.

Where unionized employees end up is a matter for negotiations because of seniority issues.

"Our hope is that those employees where we do not have vacant positions at nearby medical centers will still be interested in applying for positions elsewhere in Group Health," Adler said.

The organization, with 10,000 employees, is ranked as the fourth largest employer in the state, Adler said.

In addition to closing the Monroe clinic, the Group Health board also decided to close two of its other medical clinics: West Olympia, with 8,400 members, which opened in 1985; and West Seattle, with 4,850 members, which opened in 1996.

With nearly 600,000 members in Washington and Idaho, Group Health is the nation’s largest health care cooperative.

You can call Herald Writer Sharon Salyer at 425-339-3486 or send e-mail to salyer@heraldnet.com.