PORT ANGELES — A $650,000 earmark for Olympic Medical Center would be money well spent, said U.S. Sen. Patty Murray after a tour of the hospital’s Peninsula Children’s Clinic on Thursday morning.

The funding is included in the Labor, Health and Human Services Appropriations bill now being considered by the U.S. Senate.

The proposed bill also includes $500,000 for laboratory and technology equipment for Peninsula College, which is based in Port Angeles with branches in Forks and Port Townsend.

The funds would be used by the hospital to expand its electronic filing system for patient records, which Chief Medical Officer Scott Kennedy referred to as Meditech, to include the children’s clinic.

“It was really impressive to see, up close and personal, what amount of paperwork they are dealing with,” said Murray, D-Freeland.

“It gives me the ability to fight to make sure that we get them financial support.”

Quality of treatment

Dr. Jeff Weller explained to Murray that expanding Meditech allows a patient’s records to be more easily accessed by OMC staff and the patients themselves and improves the quality of their treatment overall.

To emphasize that point, OMC commissioner Gary Smith brought in two large binders filled with the records of just one patient.

“In reality, we can hold them in something like this,” he said, holding a small computer storage device, known as a flash drive, in his right hand.

Kennedy said the attic of the children’s clinic is full of paper records of patients that could be accessed immediately by OMC staff in Sequim or Port Angeles if included in Meditech.

“We want to see community-wide programs that can interact with the hospital,” he said.

“We want to create bridges to everywhere,” OMC CEO Eric Lewis added.

Smith said the hospital began switching to electronic records in 1997.

Kennedy said completing that switch may be done by 2012.

On Thursday, Murray also held a roundtable discussion with OMC staff as well as representatives from the Jamestown S’Klallam and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes, toured Battelle Northwest in Sequim, and delivered a speech to the Sequim Rotary Club.

On Wednesday, Murray delivered a speech to the Port Angeles Rotary Club, toured Angeles Composite Technologies, Inc. in Port Angeles and the North Olympic Peninsula Skills Center, held a roundtable discussion on her education initiative, and met with local representatives of veterans organizations.

Roundtable discussion

After the tour, OMC staff and tribe representatives spoke with Murray about their concerns about healthcare in the hospital’s Linkletter Hall.

The hospital’s main concern: the status of Medicare and Medicaid.

Lewis said 70 percent of the hospital’s patients use at least one of the government-funded programs — a statistic likely to be seen in the rest of the nation as baby boomers age.

“We’re already there,” he said. “We are concerned with our survival.”

Lewis said Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements from the government do not fully cover the cost of treatment and other medical visits, leaving hospitals to pick up the rest of the tab.

That, Kennedy said, is discouraging younger doctors from becoming primary-care physicians.

“It’s become harder to maintain a viable practice in rural communities,” he said.

Murray said Congress prevented cuts to Medicare this year.

“I hear your challenges,” she said.

“I’m proud to be working with you for the health care bill appropriation.”

John Beitzel, OMC commissioner, said reform of Medicare and Medicaid needs to address access to health care.

Beitzel said 9,000 people in Clallam County lack health insurance, and that number is escalating.

This year, Beitzel said OMC estimates it will spend $7.4 million in uncompensated care because of patients lacking health insurance.

Beitzel said that 20,000 adults died prematurely in the United States last year because of a lack of access to health care.

“That is unacceptable,” he said.

Veterans’ care

Jim Leskinovitch, OMC commissioner, thanked Murray for her role in opening the Clallam County Veterans Center, and said that Veterans Affairs needs to be more flexible when it comes to health care.

“I’ve had cases where veterans needed a CT scan, and they wouldn’t allow them to come here,” he said.

“The money is being pledged to use it,” he added, referring to OMC.

Sonya Tetnowski, Lower Elwha Klallam tribe CEO, echoed Leskinovitch’s frustration.

Tetnowski said the tribe has an agreement with Veterans Affairs to open a satellite facility for veterans, but has not heard back from them.

“We have a lot of unreturned phone calls,” she said, citing bureaucracy as the problem.

Citing that agreement, Murray said she has been pushing Veterans Affairs to commit to a November timeline for the project.

“I know where they live,” she said, suggesting she wasn’t going to give up on the project.

Concurring with Lewis’ statement, Murray said OMC’s concerns are representative of what hospital’s around the country are facing or will face.

Issues relating to Medicare, Medicaid, and an aging population will be addressed at the national level, she said.

“If it doesn’t work here, it won’t work anywhere,” Murray said.

Rotary Club

Murray reiterated her comments on the recent $700 billion bailout bill from the day before at a Sequim Rotary Club luncheon at the Cedars at Dungeness, 1965 Woodcock Road in Sequim.

Murray said she was angered over the prospect of the federal government bailing out Wall Street, but said it is a necessary step to try to mend the problems facing the economy.

“None of us wanted to vote for the bill,” she said, adding that Congress ensured that there is strict oversight on how the funds are handled.

Murray said the government will probably be able to sell the “bad assets” it bought with the bailout in about five years.

In terms of the tough economic times facing the nation, Murray said the federal government is going to have to “tighten its belt.”

But as a daughter of a World War II veteran, Murray said she won’t support cuts of veterans’ services.

Commenting on her OMC meeting earlier that day, Murray said she was pleased to see county residents willing to support the hospital’s levy lid lift, passed in the Aug. 19 primary.

“The community is doing what it takes to get health care right,” she said.

After addressing the audience, Murray responded to questions from the Rotarians on such matters as illegal immigration, Congressional earmarks, and the recent bailout bill.

One audience member asked if a second bailout bill may be used in the near future.

Murray said U.S. Treasurer Henry Paulson told her he could not give her an answer to that question.

Murray defended the use of Congressional earmarks, while acknowledging that they can go too far.

Earmarks, she said, allow her to secure funding for the OMC as well as projects such as the Olympic Discovery Trail and the Gateway International Transportation Project in Port Angeles.

“I have to go to [Washington,] D.C. to fight for my constituents,” she said.

In response to a question asking her stance on illegal immigration, Murray said those that are here illegally should be arrested, but suggested that a path to citizenship should be available.

“We have to clamp down on illegal immigration,” she said.

“How to do that is still in the works.”

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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or tom.callis@peninsuladailynews.com.