PORT ANGELES — A company hired by Olympic Medical Center approached 24 health organizations in December to gauge their interest in a possible partnership with the hospital to help its financial woes.

OMC’s board of commissioners on Wednesday heard from Rex Burgdorfer of Juniper Advisory, who updated them on the selection process and timeline that could mean a decision by May of whether or not the public hospital will remain independent or join another healthcare system.

Burgdorfer said responses from the organizations that received non-disclosure agreements and information packets are due Feb. 12 and would be shared with the board at its Feb. 19 meeting, when it would select finalists.

The finalists would be invited for a site visit to OMC in March, and in April, OMC officials would visit their headquarters and facilities.

Burgdorfer ran through the many different kinds of partnerships that were possible. They ran from a loose affiliation in which ownership and control were maintained, to outright purchase in which one system was absorbed by another.

Mergers are the most common among nonprofit hospitals like OMC, he said.

Partnering with another health care system is not a certainty. OMC can choose to end the process at any point and elect to remain independent.

Public comment Wednesday focused on OMC’s exploration of a partnership in which it could lose that independence.

Speakers expressed concern that joining a hospital system with a religious affiliation, specifically the Catholic church, could have a negative impact on health care because of its prohibitions against a range of services. Those include delivery of some women’s reproductive health care and end of life care.

That commissioners would only have a single meeting at which to select finalists was criticized, and a request was made that they take more time to review and consider potential partners.

In other news from the meeting:

• Commissioners will have 90 days in which to select a replacement for at-large board member Phyllis Bernard, who resigned on Jan. 3. If they do not find a person within that time, the Clallam County commissioners would appointment someone.

Commissioners also discussed changing the process by which board positions represent specific geographical areas in the district to make them all at-large positions.

• While the focus in the state Legislature is on the projected $10 billion to $12 billion budget shortfall over the next four years, OMC CEO Darryl Wolfe said Washington hospitals will continue to press for three primary issues during the 105-day session. They want to remove barriers to discharging patients who don’t need to be hospitalized but require other kinds of care, require more transparency in prior authorization demands by payers, and support for rural maternity care.

“Here at OMC, we’re lucky to have a pretty robust labor and delivery group, but there’s lot of parts of our state where there’s just nothing,” Wolfe said. “In Forks, a decision was made to get out of this, which is unfortunate for folks that live on the West End or in Neah Bay.”

• Sound Physicians, the contract management group that staffs OMC’s emergency department, said it has met or exceeded a number of goals in delivering care at the hospital. The median time from when a patient enters the emergency room to when that person sees a clinician was consistently less than 30 minutes, and it is working on reducing the time from when a patient arrives in the emergency room to the time of discharge from 225 minutes to 185 minutes.

• Dr. Allen Chen is OMC’s new chief physician officer. Chen earned an undergraduate degree from Cornell University, a medical degree from Yale University and a master’s degree in Business Administration from UCLA Anderson School of Management. Chen replaces Dr. Joshua Jones, who resigned on Nov. 1, 2023.

• OMC was awarded a $1 million grant from the state Department of Commerce that will be used to replace its 50-year-old boilers. It was one of 26 recipients of an Energy Efficiency Retrofits for Public Buildings Grant for upgrades of existing buildings that will save energy and lower operational costs.

• In the election of board officers, commissioners unanimously chose Ann Henninger as president and Phil Giuntoli as secretary. Outgoing President Thom Hightower was recognized for his two years of service.

• Sequim School District Superintendent Regan Nickels and Maintenance and Operations Director Mike Santos presented to hospital commissioners the district’s two measures on the Feb. 11 special election ballot. Proposition 1 is a four-year, $36.2 million EP&O replacement levy to support sports, music, counselors, nurses, maintenance and other expenses not funded by the state. Proposition 2 is a $145.9 million construction bond to replace Helen Haller Elementary, upgrades at Greywolf Elementary, renovation of Sequim High School and the installation of safety and security features.

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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.