Despite some conflicting information still floating around, the rumored take-over of the Swedish Bainbridge Island Primary Care clinic on Bainbridge appears to have fallen through at the last minute. The clinic is now once again set to permanently close on Friday, July 2.
In a new message sent to their patients, Swedish stated that, “Over the past six months, since our initial communication about the impending closure, we hosted discussions with multiple providers in an effort to secure an agreement with a viable healthcare organization to carry on clinic operations. Unfortunately, we were not able to solidify a deal.”
The announcement earlier this year that Swedish was planning to leave the island came as a shock to its many local patients. That shock was then replaced by cautious hope that a new owner, rumored to be MultiCare Health System, could take over the clinic as soon as next month. Those rumors were seemingly confirmed when MultiCare were seen advertising for physicians on Bainbridge Island.
MultiCare is a long-standing local healthcare system that operates 11 hospitals and numerous clinics across Washington State, and has no particular religious affiliation.
MultiCare recently opened four service centers in two Poulsbo locations – a Family Medical Center with Children’s Outpatient Services on Bond Road, and an Indigo Urgent Care clinic with Occupational Medicine Clinic right next door on 10th Avenue NE.
MultiCare’s WA facilities also include hospitals and medical centers in Allenmore, Tacoma General and Mary Bridge Children’s in Tacoma, Auburn, Covington, Gig Harbor, Puyallup; and Deaconess, Valley and the Rockwood Clinic in Spokane.
From their website:
“MultiCare is a not-for-profit health care organization that’s been caring for communities in Washington state since the founding of Tacoma’s first hospital in 1882. With more than 20,000 team members, including employees, providers and volunteers, we’ve grown from a Tacoma-centric, hospital-based organization into the largest, not-for-profit, community-based, locally-owned health system in the state of Washington.”
The end of this proposed deal, one which would have preserved a variety of local healthcare provider options for all Islanders, is sad news indeed.
UPDATE 06/02/21: As recently as Monday, sources inside the involved organizations were still in possession of conflicting information about the proposed deal, but after receiving more feedback regarding our original article this morning, the overwhelming evidence is that the deal is, indeed, off. We will continue to monitor the situation.
Note: This article originally appeared with the headline, Healthy Competition: MultiCare To Take Over Swedish Clinic on Bainbridge.