By Vini Samuel

Mayor of Montesano

There’s a shortage of doctors in rural America — a problem that’s hurting families and business on the Harbor and here in Montesano.

The problem is getting worse. Even if you have health insurance, that doesn’t help when you can’t find a doctor — or when seeing one means driving for hours.

What can we do?

I want to talk about a great opportunity to bring more doctors, more options and better health care to Montesano and to our entire community.

Summit Pacific Hospital in Elma secured a grant to bring in new doctors through a residency program. While they are just starting the process, research shows where doctors go right after medical school for their residency is linked to a higher rate of where they set up their practice. The new doctors develop roots in the community.

If you want more doctors to set up on the Harbor, you desperately want a residency program like this.

This is a sustainable, long-term solution — not the revolving door that has existed in the Harbor with our medical professionals. Going with the status quo isn’t a viable option. We need something different.

When the program is secured and developed, Summit Pacific will need to build a clinic for those doctors. We believe that clinic can be, and should be, built right here in Montesano.

This can’t happen under the status quo with Montesano in Hospital District 2, connected to Grays Harbor Community Hospital in Aberdeen.

Montesano has been searching for solutions to this issue since 2016 when Grays Harbor Community Hospital came to us with an idea for an expanded clinic. They backed out in 2017 because of mounting financial problems.

For the past 18 months, I’ve met with multiple possible partners, public and private, to bring more doctors and health care options to our city.

Those meetings included private hospitals and health care networks. Going with a public option has the challenge of withdrawal, but the upside is switching to the other hospital district gives our residents an option that’s local, public and completely committed to the health of the entire Harbor.

Montesano residents already naturally gravitate to using Summit Pacific, since it’s just 10 miles away on a highway. That time difference—12 minutes instead of 22 minutes—matters when it comes to your health care.

Bringing such a clinic to our town would also help diversify and develop our downtown core.

The Montesano City Council unanimously passed a resolution asking to withdraw from Hospital District 2, a necessary step before our city can join Hospital District 1.

So, what needs to happen next?

There’s a political process that allows us to work in partnership between the public hospitals and the city.

1) The matter goes now to the board of Hospital District 2 (Grays Harbor Community Hospital) for a resolution. If they say yes, the process is fairly quick, and we can move forward together.

2) If Grays Harbor Community Hospital board denies the request, a change in district will need to occur through a petition of the territory that wants to withdraw. The results of the petition effort would go to the hospital board and then to the county commissioners to review. If the county disagrees with the hospital board, there’s a vote of the people of all the district to see if Montesano can withdraw. This is longer, costs money and pits us against each other instead of finding a common path to the common good for all of us.

Regardless of which process happens, it’s worth the effort to bring more doctors and better options to the Harbor — to operate from a point of hope instead of fear.

I am committed to solving our county’s problems by working as a team to be better than we are now. If you care about making this happen, please contact your Hospital District 2 board members. The district’s phone number is 360-532-8330. Find their names and emails at ghcares.org/about-us/public-hospital-district.

Ask them to let Montesano switch districts so we can bring new ideas and new doctors to the Harbor.

This is a chance for us to work together to get things done, to make real progress on health care. Your voice matters. Please stand up and speak out to help make it happen.

Vini Samuel is an attorney and the mayor of Montesano. She can be reached at vsamuel@montesano.us.