See the photographs of the farewell party in the
Photo Gallery
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Kaiser patients: See Molly's clarification of your options
on the Kaiser page
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There's a new article in
the Marin IJ
Which is also copied in our IJ
section
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See Molly's Farewell Letter on the Home Page
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Meeting December 6 for everybody
Press Release
The Coastal Health
There will be a status update on the January 1st closing of Dr. Bourne’s practice at the West Marin Medical Center (WMMC) and the status of Dr. Michael Whitt’s (WMMC) practice (as distinguished from Dr. Mike Witte (CHA)). The Coastal Health Alliance will give a status update on how it is planning to help ensure the continuation of local access to primary health care services in West Marin. Other West Marin health care and health care-related services will also give updates. And there will be a summary report on the recent Kaiser patient meetings.
The meeting will then focus upon how community
members and local governmental agencies can help participate in the
solutions to our current local access to health care challenges.
Whether you are on Medicare or MediCal, Kaiser or other private
insurance, are uninsured or sliding scale, you won’t want to miss this
community meeting – December 6th, 7-9pm at the Dance Palace,
main hall.
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Kaiser Group members: Molly's
"FAQs" about Kaiser and the notes for
the meeting of Oct 29 are on the Kaiser page;
questions posed for Bill Elliott are on the
new questions page
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Dr Bourne Updates her resignation letter
See the Home page.
Molly's summary of the Oct. 15th meeting
Last night, the Coastal Health Alliance (CHA) hosted a community meeting to discuss what will happen after I leave the West Marin Medical Center (WMMC). While the meeting was mostly an opportunity for people to get together and learn what the challenges are, a few important points were made which are worth listing now. This is only the first step towards a solution for my patients, but we have to start somewhere.
The indisputable points are:
CHA has a mission to be the health care safety net of west Marin and are willing to do their best to take over where I have left off. However, they do not currently have the funds to do this.
I plan to move on with my future in 2008 and ask that the community support me in this. I am happy to remain present for the transition, but not as the doctor. If I come back to primary care medicine it will be in west Marin where my heart is, but for now I am planning to take some time to get my story out and make a greater change in health care that touches more than west Marin.
Dr. Whitt wants very much to continue seeing his patients in the WMMC.
The people of west Marin want to see my office stay a doctor’s office, as do I.
Thanks to Steve Costa and a show of hands, it is clear that a large percentage of the community would be willing to pay out of pocket extra money to keep WMMC alive.
No matter what happens, we need to find a doctor.
Suzanne Speh did an amazing job of laying out several options for my center. Without going into too much detail, the big choices, in my mind, are to either raise money to help CHA take over my office or to raise money to hire a new physician to take over my office.
There is not enough time before I leave on January 1st to get all of this solved. There needs to be a short term solution and a long term solution. One short term solution would be to hire a replacement physician for a defined short term, three months to nine months. Dr. Witte said he knew several qualified primary care physicians who might consider such an arrangement.
Kaiser has made it very clear to me that they are not interested in having a contract with any other provider in west Marin other than CHA, so unless CHA takes over my practice, my Kaiser patients will need to go elsewhere. Rich Clarke from the audience took names of my patients who have Kaiser so that they can form together to fight this issue if need be.
This is what I propose:
I propose we make an account for people to put money into. This money could help find a physician and put that doctor in place in my office in 2008. The details of whether CHA or a private entity owns the practice can be figured out in early 2008. For tax and legal purposes, I do not want to be the person responsible for this. One solution would be for CHA to have an account labeled “WMMC donations” with a committee of my patients to help determine where the funds go. Another committee should be designated for the doctor search. I have a long list of people who have offered to help in this. After I talk again with CHA and Suzanne Speh, I will then reach out to these people to take it from there.
If you are interested in this plan, please email me your contact information and keep checking the website for updates.
Meanwhile, once again, thank you to everyone who has reached out in any way. It has made this challenging time more pleasant. Thank you also for the letters you have sent. I plan to use this momentum to make something big happen. I want to create something better for people like you.
Thank you,
Molly Bourne