As talks resume, leadership shifts at VHCD

Published 1:30 pm Wednesday, October 12, 2022

Vashon Health Care District’s (VHCD) superintendent, Eric Jensen, announced last week that he would be leaving his part-time, 25-hour-week job with the district as of the end of October.

Jensen’s departure comes amid Sea Mar’s recently renewed negotiations with Sea Mar Community Health Centers, which operates the district’s healthcare clinic on Sunrise Ridge.

In a phone call, Jensen said he was leaving the district after having been recruited to take an interim position with Astria Health, working in a senior health management position at the company’s hospital in Sunnyside, Washington.

His background in health care management made him well suited for the position, he said.

Jensen’s departure was discussed at VHCD’s regular board meeting on Oct. 3 — along with plans to immediately fill his role. Commissioners said that Tim Johnson, a well-known island healthcare advocate, had expressed interest in filling Jensen’s position on an interim basis and that the board would consider his application along with any other interested applicants for the job at another special meeting called for Friday, Oct. 14.

The hybrid special meeting will take place at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 14, at the Vashon Presbyterian Church and on Zoom at tinyurl.com/mvstrmcc.

At the meeting, commissioners will consider the qualifications of candidates for the position of interim superintendent and may vote to select a candidate for interim superintendent.

Johnson, currently the manager of Granny’s Attic, has long been active in island healthcare efforts, including Vashon-Maury Healthcare Collaborative and the campaign to establish VHCD.

He has also been deeply engaged with VHCD, serving on a task force established to help advise VHCD on matters related to its efforts to build a community-owned healthcare clinic on Vashon.

Johnson could not be reached for comment on his interest in assuming the superintendent’s role for VHCD.

Jensen’s tenure with VHCD has been eventful.

He was appointed to his role in June of 2020, after the Sunrise Ridge clinic’s provider at the time, Neighborcare, announced it would no longer operate the clinic, due to substantial financial losses.

Jensen was then instrumental — in the midst of a worsening pandemic, with no other providers expressing an interest in coming to Vashon — in securing Sea Mar to become the clinic’s new provider and helping to facilitate the opening of their operations in early November.

Since that time, Sea Mar has received a $1.5 million annual subsidy from VHCD, allowing it to profitably operate at Sunrise Ridge.

But in the past two months, Jensen has also helmed the district in the midst of a thorny contractual breakdown with Sea Mar’s executive team, followed by several ensuing declarations by Sea Mar: first, that it would leave Vashon altogether at the end of December; then, that it wished to stay and operate the clinic without VHCD’s generous subsidy; and finally, that it had purchased the Spinnaker Building, also located in Vashon’s town core.

Sea Mar executive vice president Mary Bartolo told The Beachcomber on Sept. 21, Sea Mar would be able to operate temporarily at the Spinnaker Building while possibly building its own healthcare clinic simultaneously on the site.

All this happened as VHCD simultaneously purchased a 2.3 plot of land, closing the deal on Sept. 21.

The acreage was purchased for below-market value from B&B Northwest Properties, an entity controlled by longtime islanders Matt Bergman and Kimberly Bergman.

It was the Bergmans’ express intent, said Tom Langland, to sell the property to VHCD for the purpose of building a community-owned healthcare asset on the site.

Sea Mar and VHCD return to negotiations

At the Oct. 5 board meeting, commissioners said that VHCD and Sea Mar had returned to negotiations, without mediation, which VHCD had initially requested during the weeks-long impasse in talks.

Current negotiations include the terms for extending Sea Mar’s temporary occupancy of the clinic on Sunrise Ridge, and the district’s desire for more transparency and assurances from Sea Mar about its plans to operate a new clinic without receiving a tax subsidy.

Sea Mar, for its part, also indicated that it welcomed a return to negotiations with VHCD.

In a draft of a commentary written for The Beachcomber, Bartolo and Mike Leong, Sea Mar’s vice president of corporate and legal affairs, said that Sea Mar was glad to have re-engaged in “active discussions about how to come together to meet the needs of the community.”

The commentary, which arrived just after The Beachcomber’s deadline for its Oct. 6 issue, will be revised and resubmitted to the newspaper at a later date, Bartolo said.

In the unpublished draft commentary, Bartolo and Leong wrote that Sea Mar has “an open door to learn from the community about your needs and how we can serve you best. We are open to receiving community feedback and input.”

Bartolo and Leong also said that in its independent clinic, which it intends to operate without a subsidy from VHCD, Sea Mar plans to “continue the same primary care medical services currently being offered and will continue to accept all the same insurance plans currently accepted, including Medicaid, Medicare and Kaiser.”

In addition, Bartolo and Leong said, Sea Mar envisions services expanding to an integrated care model offering dental and behavioral health services if needed by the community.

“An integrated service model of care is an ideal service delivery model because it not only increases access to services, but it also strengthens financial sustainability,” they wrote. “As an organization that provides affordable housing, Sea Mar is well-suited to explore the possibility of providing affordable housing on Vashon.

Commissioners take to the streets

Last week, VHCD commissioners began a new practice they say they hope to continue — setting up shop to hold “office hours” in well-traveled island locations to discuss their vision for a community-owned healthcare clinic on Vashon, and answer questions from the islanders about the ongoing negotiations with Sea Mar.

On Thursday, Oct. 6, VHCD commissioners Alan Aman and Eric Pryne claimed a spot at Vashon Island Coffee Roasterie to hold discussions with islanders, and on Friday, Oct. 7, Tom Langland and Wendy Noble sat outside The Hardware Store Restaurant, during First Friday Gallery Cruise hours, to chat with passersby.

On Saturday, Aman and Pryne staffed tables outside of Vashon Thriftway and Vashon Market IGA, engaging in more conversations with islanders. Pryne said his conversations with islanders had been very productive, and he had been heartened by islanders’ expressions of support for VHCD in the current difficult situation.

Langland, for his part, told The Beachcomber in an email, “We remain open-minded and optimistic in spite of some of the puzzling recent developments. Sea Mar has invited us back to the negotiation table — we’ll see how far it goes. Mediation is still an option down the road.”