This is a developing story and will be updated.

CHI Franciscan Health, which has operated the medical clinic at Sunrise Ridge for three years, announced this morning it will cease operations there in August.

Franciscan officials delivered the news in person on Friday morning to clinic staff, The Beachcomber and several other members of the community. They have also sent letters, expected to arrive as early as Saturday, to clinic patients.

Tim Marsh, vice president of operations with the Franciscan Medical Group, was one of those who came to the island to deliver the news.

“It is a business decision,” he said. “We have been subsidizing operations of the clinic since we took it on three years ago.”

He acknowledged that many primary care clinics lose money, but the larger health systems to which they belong make up for the loss through reimbursements to specialty care and hospital visits. Even accounting for that income, Marsh said the Franciscans were losing money while providing care on Vashon.

“The financials have not been trending the right way,” he said.

Physicians and other staff at the clinic are being given the opportunity to apply for open positions throughout the Franciscan system, Marsh said, and patients can follow their providers or transfer care to the nearest Franciscan clinics that have room to accommodate them, in West Seattle and Port Orchard.

“I feel badly,” Marsh said. “I understand the impact it has here. At the same time, we are offering care at the closest sites off-island.”

While the news is coming as a shock to many islanders, for several months, members of the Vashon-Maury Health Collaborative (VMHC) — which formed four years ago to improve health care on Vashon — have known the Franciscans did not intend to stay long-term and have reached out to medical systems in the region to see if any might be interested in running a clinic on Vashon — and avert a health care crisis on the island.

Two entities have expressed interest, including UW Medicine, according to Tag Gornall, one of the members of the group. Conversations, still in their early stages, are ongoing. If a new provider does come to the island, it is not known yet when a clinic would open, where it would be located or exactly what services it would offer.

Gornall and fellow VMHC members John Jenkel, an attorney, and Tim Johnson, who has a business background and currently managers Granny’s Attic, cautioned that islanders cannot expect a larger entity to come in and pick up where the Franciscans left off — following a model that has been repeatedly unsuccessful. The goal, they say, is to create a sustainable system.

“This to us is a pivot point in our community,” Johnson said. “Something or nothing is going to happen. If something is going to happen, it needs to be not another leaky patch on a leaky tire.”

They also stressed islander support will be essential.

“This is going to require a lot more community participation … to have something on the island that can sustain itself,” Johnson said.

That support might fall into a range of categories, he said, from financial assistance for a new building, to short-or long-term subsidies to support regular operations.

“All those things have to be out on the table,” he added.

Gornall noted his group plans to hold a public meeting soon.

“VMHC will hold a community forum in the near future to discuss plans and ideas going forward,” he said. “We need to first to reach some tentative agreements concerning a relationship with one or more more medical providers.”

For more information about the VMHC, see its website at VMHealth.org and click on the “Visualize Health Care” tab.