The community group that has been working to bring a new health care provider to the island announced on Monday that the health care systems it has been in talks with would need substantial financial support from the island to establish a Vashon clinic.

Tim Johnson, a board member of the Vashon-Maury Health Collaborative (VMHC), said that the group will host a public meeting on Friday, July 8, where members will lay out potential plans to partner with an outside provider and for a locally funded and run facility. Swedish Medical Center and UW Medicine have expressed interest in establishing a clinic on the island, but Johnson said in both cases the organizations have requested island support for initial costs and ongoing annual needs. Swedish has not provided a hard number yet for ongoing support, Johnson noted, but UW Medicine has placed that number at $500,000 to $600,000 annually, though he stressed if it required less once it was established, it would not ask for more than its losses. In May, when CHI-Franciscan Health announced it will close its clinic at Sunrise Ridge in August, the spokesman indicated the clinic loses about $500,000 annually.

In a press release, Johnson said that a third provider is still in the initial feasibility study stage, but the group expects its numbers to be similar.

“There is no question that these types of financial requirements are daunting,” he wrote.

Initially, Johnson said, VMHC members determined that partnering with a larger health care entity made sense for a variety of reasons, ranging from depth of technology to economies of scale. However, he said, the request for such a high amount of financial assistance made the group look at alternative, locally supported models.

VMHC, which formed in 2012, previously researched running a community clinic without an outside partner before its members knew the Franciscans would be leaving, he said, so the group is not starting from scratch in this effort. Funding talks are preliminary, but he said he expected that financial support would come from a mix of government funds, foundations and other donations, as well as the possible creation of a hospital taxing district. Such a district — which would not include a hospital on Vashon despite its name — was proposed several years ago to support the work of the Vashon Health Center under Highline ownership as well as Vashon Community Care. The measure did not pass.

Because of state law regarding property taxes, the creation of a new taxing district could affect the other junior taxing districts on the island, which include the fire, park, library and cemetery districts. Johnson, however, noted his group’s aim would be to seek funding at such a level that it would not impact the other districts, and members have contacted the county to get pertinent information to help guide them. He also noted that VMHC intends to work with Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) on the effort and said his group had spoken to Chief Hank Lipe, who is leaving at the end of the month, about this issue.

For his part, Lipe said that a new taxing district could have large ramifications for VIFR, and he said he hopes that the VMHC members will work with the leaders of potentially affected districts as they move ahead. VIFR Board of Commissioners Chair Candy McCullough said, so far, members of VMHC have not approached the fire board about the matter.

“It’s total news to me,” she said Monday afternoon.

She, too, indicated she believes such a district would reduce funds to VIFR “pretty severely” but noted she did not yet have all the facts.

The Franciscan clinic at Sunrise Ridge will close on Aug. 5, and Johnson said VMHC members are working to ensure that medical services will remain on the island. He and other members are beginning to reach out to donors for funding of an interim, limited clinic, while funding for a long-term clinic is sorted out. In the next week or two, more information will be available on the plans, which they are currently working on with some local providers and an array of other experts, Johnson said. VMHC plans to present a more comprehensive version of the plans at the July 8 meeting.

“We are taking the steps to make sure the interim is as good as we can get it, and the long-term is the appropriate long-term,” he said, “but that does not happen overnight.”

VMHC members have stressed that the community would have to be part of a solution for sustainable island health care, and Johnson reiterated that again on Monday.

“It is going to take an awful lot of participation by the island as a whole,” he said. “People are going to have to think long and hard about what they want on the island. No system is going to come in and give it to us.”

Since learning about the Franciscans’ decision to leave, VMHC members have been in contact with elected representatives and county officials for assistance. On Monday, however, representatives from both Executive Dow Constantine’s office and Councilmember Joe McDermott’s office were not available to comment about the latest developments before press time.

Additionally, a University of Washington spokeswoman declined to comment beyond confirming that UW Medicine has been “in discussions concerning a Vashon clinic.”

The time and location for the July 8 meeting have yet to be determined. See The Beachcomber and vmhealth.org about further developments.