Loss of health center is crisis for all

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, June 15, 2016

The imminent loss of the Franciscan Medical Clinic is a crisis for our island. Not only do we lose the clinic, but also the doctors and nurses who staff it. When our beloved family physician for 30 years (Dr. Kappelman) retired several months ago, we began our transition to other primary care providers at the clinic, but we are now faced with their loss also. Not only do we islanders no longer have urgent care on the island, but also no general practitioners to fill the gap from the loss of five Franciscan providers — the few other island doctors are not taking new patients.

When we moved to the island, the presence of the Vashon Health Clinic was crucial to our decision. We would have never moved to Vashon from Montana with our four children in 1986 had we not been certain about good health care on the island. The loss of the Franciscan Center sparks a crisis not just for individuals, but for a whole latticework of connected caregivers: the Community Care Center, Vashon Fire and Rescue, Vashon Youth and Family Services, school district nurses and many others.

So what to do? We are extremely fortunate to have a volunteer group of citizens (Vashon Maury Health Collaborative) working on our behalf for a solution. We urge everyone to become familiar with their website: vmhealth.org, to follow their analysis of options and to contribute effort and energy to a permanent community-based solution as plans develop.

— John and Kit Bean