https://www.ptleader.com/stories/leak-sheds-light-on-plan-for-hospital-alliance,204196?

Leak sheds light on plan for hospital alliance

Jefferson Healthcare along Sheridan Street in Port Townsend.

Leader photo by Alex Frick

Posted Wednesday, April 9, 2025 3:00 am

By James Robinson

An effort to create a new regional health alliance between Jefferson Healthcare and Olympic Medical Center appears to be moving forward, with leaked project planning documents describing particulars of how an alliance might ultimately play out.

The project documents, acquired by The Leader, followed comments made by Jefferson Healthcare Commissioner Matt Ready at the March 26 meeting where he accused his co-commissioners of meeting secretly with OMC representatives to merge the two organizations.

Called Project Driftwood, the Jefferson Healthcare proposal calls for the formation of the Peninsula Health Alliance, effectively a not-for-profit alliance which project documents say would allow Jefferson Healthcare and Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles to remain independent, while improving and expanding clinical programs, creating operating efficiencies and economies of scale and the ability to improve and expand clinical programs.

The plan, according to Project Driftwood documents, calls for a 12-member “super board” — with seven board members from Olympic Medical Center and five from Jefferson Healthcare. According to the plan, all currently elected commissioners would sit on the super board and the super board would govern the regional health alliance while individual boards would remain responsible for governance of their own organizations.

The proposal calls for a three-year phased-in leadership approach, with an appointed executive director planned for the first year. Project documents propose that Jefferson Healthcare Chief Executive Officer, Mike Glenn, would serve as the alliance’s first executive director.

“Frankly, many of the opportunities embedded in this model have been deliberated for years,” according to Project Driftwood documents. “Olympic Medical Center and Jefferson Healthcare have been strong partners for decades. We share the same governance, leadership and medical group models, electronic medical record and perhaps most importantly, commitment to excellence cultures.”

Project Driftwood is the outgrowth of an OMC decision announced in December 2024 to hire Juniper Advisory Group to guide them through a process to decide if they need a partner, and if so, who that partner should be. Roughly 20 organizations were invited to submit proposals, including Jefferson Healthcare.

“We are still in the preliminary stages of the exploration process,”said Bobby Stone, director of marketing and communications for Olympic Medical Center. “We received inquiries from several interested parties and are engaged in a due diligence process to learn more about these organizations. We are bound to confidentiality about who these interested parties are.”

A key player at Jefferson Healthcare also noted the non disclosure agreement as reason for their silence.

But no one from the organization has made public mention of the plan to submit a proposal and the other commissioners have remained quiet about Project Driftwood.

“A subset of Jefferson commissioners were involved or consulted during the drafting phase,” Ready said in a previous interview. “I was not. I only became aware of the proposal during the executive session on February 5. The full board has never voted to authorize the proposal or the direction of the negotiations. Much of the process has taken place out of public view, contrary to the principles of public hospital governance.”

Kolff said in the meeting that “all of our actions have been legal according to our legal counsel.” He also stated that Ready was “in violation of the board’s ethics policy.”

Emails provided by Ready show correspondence between Jefferson Healthcare Commissioner Kees Kolff and Jefferson Healthcare top executives, discussing the merger plan, and Kolff’s efforts to draft language and an organizational chart.

“Thanks for the conversation with Mike about this exciting possible alliance the other day, and thanks for the opportunity to share some ideas for edits on the organizational chart and the governance comments that go along with that,” Kolff wrote to Pranav Sharma, head of strategic planning, marketing and communication for Jefferson Healthcare. “I have attached a reworded narrative. There were too many edits to make ‘show changes’ useful,” the email stated. It was copied to Mike Glenn, Shannon Groff and commissioners.

At the March 26 commissioners’ meeting Ready made his concerns public and alleged that members of the board had been negotiating secretly with representatives of OMC. Ready further alleged that members of the commission had violated open meeting laws and abused the use of executive session.

When asked about the use of executive session to discuss the possible alliance, Jefferson Healthcare Commissioner Jill Buhler Rienstra did not respond to requests for comment. According to Kolff, Buhler Rienstra is out of town this week, and he was traveling and not able to provide a complete comment by presstime.

Should Olympic Medical Center continue its evaluation of the Jefferson Healthcare’s proposal, the next step would involve representatives from Jefferson Healthcare visiting OMC facilities for a site visit and further discussions. Olympic Medical Center project documents indicate the agency would make a decision in April or May on whether OMC will pursue a partnership.

The OMC decision to seek a partner comes amidst myriad financial challenges, including federal cuts and halts to Medicaid reimbursements.