Vashon Health Care District (VHCD) has made a strong first step for providing urgent care to islanders. I support the proposed contract with DispatchHealth.
I worked as a primary care physician at the Vashon Health Center for over 38 years. During most of that time, my colleagues and I provided urgent care and after-hours medical services to a large number of islanders in addition to our daily primary care duties. Unfortunately, a corporate decision ended urgent and after-hours care at the Vashon Health Center nine years ago, in 2015.
I am one of several island healthcare professionals who was invited last year to help VHCD develop an urgent care solution. The district conducted many months of study on the island’s urgent care needs. We helped VHCD explore a way to bring urgent care back to the island.
We realized it’s not yet possible to build a brick-and-mortar urgent care facility on Vashon. Instead, the initial move supported by our advisory team is a modern version of the house call. A two-person urgent care team comes to your home, conducts an examination, does needed tests or arranges for them (including mobile X-ray if indicated), arrives at a diagnosis, and prescribes medications and other care. No ferry ride required.
It’s important for people to understand that in-home urgent care is not the same as a visit to a hospital emergency room, nor does it replace ongoing primary care and preventive medicine.
The VHCD proposal to contract with DispatchHealth will help fill the significant need for urgent care on the island. This new service will also help address current gaps in primary care with its unique mobile model of in-home care. In fact, DispatchHealth pioneered the in-home urgent care approach ten years ago.
The process of exploring a relationship with DispatchHealth has been thorough, careful, and inclusive. Assuming the Health District approves the contract at its regular board meeting on August 21, DispatchHealth plans to begin rolling out the service in early September. House calls would start no later than the first of October.
DispatchHealth has all the required systems and staff ready to go. Their communication infrastructure is robust. The company has a track record of quality care in 42 community areas across 21 states.
DispatchHealth monitors performance measures so the district can get real-world information about the island’s urgent care needs and fine-tune Vashon’s urgent-care program to match. The DispatchHealth contract runs for two years, allowing time for VHCD and the community to evaluate this innovative service and complete further planning for a long-term, sustainable urgent care solution for the island.
I’m looking forward to VHCD working with our neighbors and our healthcare providers to solve the urgent care access puzzle. Action is long overdue. The district deserves credit for making this significant step.
Longtime island physician Dr. Gary A. Koch retired in 2018 after nearly 40 years of service as a physician and nearly as many years as the medical director of the health center on Sunrise Ridge, caring for patients, training health care providers and helping guide Vashon’s changing health care environment.
