Hospital board turns down extension request

A request by SuperTrack to extend the term of its contract with the Point Roberts hospital district was rejected by the board of commissioners at their regular meeting on October 12. SuperTrack is the medical services provider that operates the Point Roberts Clinic on Benson Road. Commissioners Stephen Falk and Sara Oggel voted against the motion while Noel Newbold voted in favor.

At the August board meeting, SuperTrack co-owner Dr. Sean Bozorgzad had raised the issue of changing the one-year renewal period to two-years. The current contract went from 1/1/21 until 12/31/22 with an automatic one-year renewal if neither party gave notice of non-renewal six months before the end of the term; as no one gave notice, the contract was automatically extended until 12/31/23. Bozorgzad told the board that all of their medical providers are on one-year contracts and it would expose their company to liability should SuperTrack lose the contract and had no work for the providers. Hospital district superintendent Barbara Wayland pointed out that recruiting is the biggest issue facing the healthcare industry and “if we can make it easier for our provider to recruit people, it’s a win-win situation.” Bozorgzad agreed with that assessment and added it would mean the two parties wouldn’t need to go through the same process each year.

Falk’s response to the proposal was two-pronged. First was technical – he did not see how changing the length of the renewal period would be a complete solution for SuperTrack. He restated this argument in an email dated October 26 to the All Point Bulletin where he wrote: “It seems to me that the proposed change to a 2-year renewal period would only provide minimal benefit regarding the hiring issue because, while the first part of the renewal term could completely encompass the employment contract period, the second employment contract for the same physician would still exceed a guaranteed 2-year window.”

Falk’s second argument involved the level of performance, saying he preferred “the automatic 1-year renewals because it can have the effect of keeping Supertrack’s attention on doing a good job for its patients in Point Roberts.” This argument harkens back to his vote against SuperTrack back in 2018 when it was competing against The Shield Company for the contract. At that time, he told fellow commissioners that he felt SuperTrack had shown a lack of commitment to the clinic for about a year before the pandemic struck. The commission went on to vote 2-1, Falk opposing, to offer the contract to SuperTrack.

Interestingly, the meeting began with a public comment period where local resident Victor Riley spoke up in support of the current clinic’s operation. Riley was a vocal critic of the previous medical provider, UnityCare NW, which had declined to renew its contract in 2018 and thus opened the door to SuperTrack.

Riley said, “For those who don’t know me, I was one of the founding commissioners of the hospital district which is almost  20 years old now, and we’ve never had doctors staffing the clinic until SuperTrack just started doing that recently.”

He mentioned a survey that had been done by the previous supplier asking why people were or weren’t using the clinic and “one of the most common barriers we found was that people needed a primary care physician and the clinic wasn’t staffed by doctors. … So now we have SuperTrack, we have more access to more and better services, standard hours for urgent care, we have telemedicine and, in my opinion, we have three of the best doctors in the region, I’m very happy with Dr. Sean and the other doctors and I just wanted to say that given that we are getting a lot more services , we should be willing to pay for that,” adding that he also supported SuperTrack’s request to go to a two-year renewal period.

The August decision was tabled until the September meeting and once again to October due to the absence of a commissioner after the superintendent suggested the decision should not be made with only two commissioners present.

Falk reintroduced the discussion and reiterated his belief that they should stick to the existing contract term. Newbold said her original opinion was, “if it isn’t broke, why fix it but I have had second thoughts” after listening to Dr. Sean talk about the difficulties of hiring people for short terms. She said she knew how tough it was to get staff and was shifting her opinion towards giving the provider longer terms. Fellow commissioner Oggel said she felt the board should leave the contract as it was and look at it next year. Back in August, Oggel had said she wanted to think about whereas Newbold was in favor of leaving the contract as is.

Responding, Bozorgzad told the board whatever the board decided he would respect that but “wanted them to know this decision would have consequences. It sends a message to us first and foremost, how you view this as a partnership.”

He asked Falk what his objections were to extending the term who again restated his thinking that the extension didn’t provide the solution to the problem of staffing.

“We feel like this is sending a message to us,” said Bozorgzad. “You are still sitting on the fence with us, you don’t want to make a longer commitment and frankly, I understand, you guys have other options, but so do we. I can tell you that if you choose this path, all we take from that is, ok, this is a business relationship, it’s not a partnership or relationship. I feel the commission could actually do better for the community. We have over-delivered based on the agreement that we have … but that means we’ll be exploring other opportunities closer to home.”

Falk responded by saying, “I’m not threatening SuperTrack in any way but I feel like we were just threatened quite directly.”

“It’s not a threat, Stephen, but if I tell you it would make our life easier to staff the clinic and you say, that really doesn’t matter, that just defines the relationship,” said Bozorgzad.

Following further discussion, Falk asked other commissioners if they had anything to add. Oggel expressed her willingness to wait until the contract neared the end of the term and would consider a longer term of two or three years at that time.

Newbold, on the other hand, said if the extension provided comfort to the clinic, she’d be willing to provide the extension. Asked when the contract was up, Falk said next June is when six month’s notice is required but the issue could be discussed at any time.

A motion to keep the contract as it was with the intention to consider revisions next year was passed 2-1 with Newbold voting against not making a change.

The district later received a letter from Riley which read, in part, “Stephen Falk maintained that this decision was intended to preserve “flexibility” for both sides, but the effect was to deny Supertrack the flexibility they need in order to hire the best staff ... By restricting their ability to staff the clinic with the best available personnel, the district’s decision ultimately harms the interests of the community more than it harms SuperTrack.

“With no better options for a clinic operator, and recognizing the superb job SuperTrack has done in the past few years, this decision is like turning down a gift horse in case someone might offer you a unicorn later.”