Vashon Community Care has recently hired James Buttitta, MD, as its new medical director and resident physician.

Buttitta, who will begin the first week in August, will make weekly visits to the skilled nursing residents and provide a health care option for those in the assisted living facility, as the center intends to establish an on-site clinic, according to managing administrator Charlene Boyd.

Buttitta, who lives on the island, learned about the challenge the care facility faced after Franciscan officials announced their intentions to leave and offered his services, he said in a phone conversation last weekend.

“I think it will work out really well,” he said. “I am anxious to get started over there.”

Buttitta said he expects to offer a half-day clinic once a month for the assisted living residents and increase that if necessary.

“We should be able to get most of their needs met in building,” he added.

Buttitta, who specializes in internal medicine, has been in practice for more than 20 years and has a primary care practice in Burien. Additionally, he is the medical director at the Burien Nursing and Rehabilitation Center and at Normandy Park Memory Care.

Buttitta’s hiring is important to the center, as federal regulations require that it provide both a physician to care for the residents’ ongoing medical needs and a medical director. The current medical director, Jeffrey HansPeterson, MD, is a provider at the Franciscan clinic and will not continue in that role after the clinic’s August closing date. Additionally, all of the residents in the skilled nursing facility rely on doctors at the Franciscan clinic, and many assisted living residents also go to the Franciscan clinic for care.

Boyd noted she is pleased to have Buttitta on board.

“I’m proud to have him,” she said.