A group of islanders stepped forward last week and indicated they are working to prevent a health care crisis on Vashon, following the news that the Franciscans plan to close the Sunrise Ridge clinic this summer.

Members of the group, called the Vashon-Maury Health Collaborative (VMHC), said they have known since last fall that the Franciscans did not intend to remain on the island long-term. Knowing this, they have reached out to medical systems in the region to see if any might be interested in running a clinic on Vashon. Two entities have expressed interest, including UW Medicine, according to Tag Gornall, the president of the group. Aware that the community is awaiting more information, Gornall said members of his group must focus their efforts, but they hope to have more information to share in the near future.

“What it requires is a window of time and the confidence from the community that we are working on this,” he said.

The group’s goal, he added, is to bring in another provider with no interruption of service. Conversations, however, are in their early stages, and if a new provider does come to the island, it is not known yet when a clinic would open, where it would be located or exactly what services it would offer. Amidst the gravity of the situation, collective members have stressed there are possibities for the island.

“You can look at this as a crisis or a stunning opportunity for us to get shaken into,” John Jenkel, an attorney and the group’s secretary, said last week. “We have to assert some control over our destiny in terms of health care.”

Jenkel, Gornall and Tim Johnson — members of the collective’s steering committee — say they hope to restructure how medical services are provided on the island and restore the community’s role as a participant in the provision of those services. The best path for that to happen, they believe, is a partnership between the community and a qualified service provider.

Johnson, who has a business background and currently manages Granny’s Attic, cautioned that islanders cannot expect a larger entity to come in and pick up where the Franciscans left off — following a model that has been repeatedly unsuccessful. The goal, they say, is to create a sustainable system.

“This to us is a pivot point in our community,” he said. “Something or nothing is going to happen. If something is going to happen, it needs to be not another leaky patch on a leaky tire.”

They also stressed islanders’ support will be essential.

“This is going to require a lot more community participation … to have something on the island that can sustain itself,” he added.

Group members noted the community has recently built a multi-million dollar high school and arts center, but its primary clinic is housed in a cinder block building built during the Cold War era.

“We need to take the same passion and education that we have put to the arts and some other causes and turn those to taking care of our people, to taking care of our citizens,” Jenkel said.

While members of the VMHC are working to secure a new provider, members of Vashon’s broader health care community are facing unexpected — and unknown — challenges.

On Friday following the announcement to the clinic staff, Tim Marsh, a vice president of the Franciscan medical group, shared the news with Vashon Island Fire & Rescue Chief Hank Lipe, who said he was stunned by the decision, which could have far-reaching implications.

“The closure of the clinic could put an unprecedented demand for EMS (emergency medical services) on the island if it remains empty. Those patients have got to do something. If they do not have health care available, they are going to call us,” he said last week.

Such a change could bring significant challenges to the small department, which responded to more than 1,200 EMS calls last year and has seen its call volume go up as the number of island health care providers has gone down, Lipe said.

“We do not have the resources for a large surge of emergency care needs,” he added. “We do not have it.”

Moreover, he added that the department itself is in a time of transition, as former Assistant Chief George Brown retired in March; Lipe plans to leave in the coming months as well, and the department is evaluating combining its paramedics with those of the South King County Medic One — a potential change that has been in the works for two years. Compounding the situation is that summer, the department’s busiest season, is also coming, and the department is already busy.

“I am not trying to say the sky is falling … but it rests on our shoulders, and we are already at operational capacity. We are beyond it really,” he added.

Lipe noted that he arrived on the island in 2008, when the health care picture was considerably more robust than it is now.

“It has been slowly eroding since then. This has pushed it over the tipping point,” he said.

He added that while the Franciscans’ departure may present an opportunity for improved health care, it is not a certainty that a new entity will come in or when, making this upcoming change extremely difficult for the fire department to prepare for.

“What are we going to plan for? I am not quite sure. A major influx? Nothing? An opportunity to develop a relationship with a new health care provider? I don’t know. There is a lot up in the air,” he said.

Regardless, he said it is imperative that the department plan as best it can.

“It would be irresponsible of me as chief not to expect that this will change the face of our operations,” he said.

Should another provider not step in, or should there be an interim window without the health center — something VMHC members say they are working hard to avoid — the few remaining island clinics have limited availability, particularly for those on Medicare or Medicaid.

Fulton Family Medicine is not able to take any new patients, owner Gail Fulton said last week after learning about the Franciscans’ decision.

“It is an astounding piece of news and sad for the island to have this disruption to much-needed care,” she said.

She has had difficulty hiring staff, she said, in part because she is unable to pay nurse practitioners what larger entities can and because the challenges of rural medicine do not appeal to everyone.

At Vashon Natural Medicine, which offers naturopaths, part-time medical doctors and will soon add nurse practitioner Sarah Hebert Maier, owner Kelly Wright said the clinic can accept some new patients, but none with Medicare or Medicaid.

Fern Cove Natural Medicine, owned by naturopathic physician Lisa Morse, also opened on Vashon recently. She primarily sees adults and is not contracted with insurance at this time.

It is against this backdrop that the VMHC is working to bring sustainable medical services to the island. They began their efforts in 2012, concerned about the stability of health care on Vashon. Initially, the group focused on the lack of an urgent care facility on Vashon, but learned that the island population would not support such a facility. Group members turned their attention to supporting the island’s independent health care providers and in 2014 surveyed them to determine their needs. At the time, they said their goal was to provide economical, sustainable and island-directed health care on Vashon, with one of the goals being to keep island providers and draw more to Vashon. In part, they hoped to create a common hub that would provide a variety of administrative support services to island health care professionals. But last July, they said the idea had not gained traction, and VMHC members decided they would regroup in the fall. When they did, Gornall said they reached out to the Franciscans to determine their future plans — and received unexpected news in return.

“Their plans were to phase themselves out of Vashon altogether,” he said. “That was kind of surprising to us, obviously.”

Initially, Gornall said, the Franciscans offered financial support and a longer time frame for the transition to take place, but neither is being offered any longer. With a confidentiality agreement in place, however, the Franciscans did share their operational data, which VMHC members have shared with other medical organizations.

Just weeks ago, the Franciscans informed VMHC members they would close the clinic on Aug. 5, Gornall said, earlier than the group had anticipated, leading them to step up their conversations with other potential providers. This week, those conversations are continuing, and Gornall said once VMHC members have more information to share with the public, they will convene a public meeting.

For now, he and other group members are focusing on the immediate matter at hand: talking with other groups that may provide medical care on Vashon.

“This creates opportunities and lots of possibilities,” Gornall said about the Franciscan decision. “We need time to put things in place to take advantage of them.”

For more information about the Vashon-Maury Health Collaborative, see VMHealth.org; see also the group’s Visualize Health Care tab.

For more information about the Franciscan’s decision to close, see Financial difficulties prompt Franciscans to close island clinic, online and in this week’s Beachcomber.