PORT ANGELES — Virginia Mason, owner of a Port Angeles medical clinic that has served 19,000 people over the past two years, is planning to leave town.
But an executive with the Seattle-based health care system said Thursday that the clinic at 433 E. Eighth St. will remain after Virginia Mason is gone.
Employees of the Port Angeles clinic were told of Virginia Mason’s plans to “change its ownership relationship” Wednesday night.
A letter informing patients was distributed Thursday, said Patti Crome, senior vice president and clinic administrator.
The clinic remains open and continues to see patients.
Crome said the clinic has not remained financially viable, citing diminishing federal reimbursements and increasing operating costs as the reasons for the health care system to leave Port Angeles.
But Crome said Virginia Mason wants to make a smooth exit without disrupting patient care.
“There are a lot of challenges in health care today,” Crome said during a telephone interview.
“But even through this transition, our priority is that (patients) would have uninterrupted care.”
Administrators had been monitoring the finances of the Port Angeles clinic over the last several months, Crome said.
A decision was made this week, but she cautioned that the process has just started.
“We’re just in the very beginning stages,” she said.