Say, what???
Update June 13: The monthly district meeting was held last night (June 12). Pat Grubb has published his account at the All Point Bulletin. Click on "Clinic crisis averted".
If you're catching up, click here for our main story.
In Pat Grubb's article in the June All Point Bulletin (APB), he included some questions and answers with Hospital District commissioners Stephen Falk and Noel Newbolt. He also asked Sara Oggel for comment but she declined, even though she's a public official and she's supposed to be answerable to all the public. Here are some highlights from Stephen Falk's answers.
Falk says that he's concerned about "the complaints we are not receiving", assuming they exist, and notes that some people with complaints choose to remain anonymous. He then says, "This creates a bit of a 'Catch 22' because our superintendent chooses to discount all anonymous complaints as inherently unreliable simply because they are anonymous."
And yet, in 2022:
Falk says he's concerned about "support staff issues or billing related issues". But when SuperTrack asked the commission to extend their contract period to two years so they could attract better candidates, Falk refused. From the minutes of the April 2023 meeting:
Falk says that despite having physicians in his family, he "quickly dispensed with my earlier prejudice and recognized the quality care provided by APRNs and PAs" when he moved here. In the August 2020 meeting when the board considered the last proposal by Deb Shields, Falk said, "I think there are some perceived advantages from the SuperTrack proposal that I actually don’t think are aspects that our community is particularly in need of. For example, having an MD present when we’ve been doing quite well for many years now with our clinic staffed with non-MD providers."
Falk became a commissioner in 2018 shortly after the district completed a community survey on the services then provided by Unity Care. One of the most common reasons people gave for not using the clinic was that they needed doctors. Also, Anwar and Shields are already practicing here outside of the clinic and people are free to use them if they want.
Falk also criticized SuperTrack for "bringing SuperTrack’s 'urgent care' model to our primary care practice."
In that same 2018 survey, another common complaint about Unity Care's service was that they didn't provide urgent care to non-primary care patients. Urgent care was one of the biggest unmet needs in Point Roberts and filling that gap was a key goal for Unity Care's replacement when they left that same year.
Falk says that the "discussions" he has had with SuperTrack's competitors have been "the same as I would have with any member of the community inquiring about the clinic or the hospital district. I have described how the district operates."
In this email, Falk suggests that Deb Shields mislead the other commissioners, the superintendent, SuperTrack, and a granting agency about the nature of her 2020 proposal to take over the clinic:
And for good measure, three months before the vote to cancel SuperTrack's contract then, Stephen visited one of Shields' intended financial backers and board members. He took measures to continue to keep the effort hidden from the superintendent:
And just before the meeting in August of that year to choose between SuperTrack and Shields, Falk provided advice to Shields (Falk in blue):
And finally, regarding "how the district operates", by law the superintendent is the chief administrative officer. Commissioners are not supposed to run the district. The three commissioners have equal authority - the chair does not have more authority. This is how it's supposed to operate, according to the law:
And here's how it's actually operating:
Falk says, "Ever since Dr. Anwar made himself known to the hospital district earlier this year...", conveniently ignoring the fact that Falk had been working with Anwar since October:
Two weeks after this exchange, on November 14, Anwar applied to vote in Whatcom County and the other PA on his team, Jessica VanderWilp who currently practices with him in Phoenix, applied for her license to practice in Washington State. Two days later on the 16th, Anwar and Stephen met for lunch. It would be three more months before Anwar would introduce himself at a public meeting. Falk did not disclose his ongoing involvement with Anwar.
Falk says he has not seen SuperTrack demonstrate "a deeper commitment to the community as a whole. I have long felt that health care providers who live here may have or develop a greater commitment to the community."
SuperTrack provided superlative support through the covid border shutdown and continues to add services that significantly exceed the contract requirements, despite being betrayed by two trusted employees with Falk's help. In contrast, the competing proposals from locals (Deb Shields) have been objectively detrimental to the community.
Falk says, "The misinformation and disinformation that has been disseminated to the community has only complicated my decision-making process." What is he talking about? Falk provided more than 500 unique records to our request. We drew from them to put the story together and published them in chronological order.
From the (as yet unapproved) May meeting minutes:
Falk says, "I am trying to make my decision based on the factors that matter to me...". "Ultimately, I may never be able to truly know how I came to my final decision....".
The table below shows the factors that matter to the community and is all he really needs to know. No reasonable person would suggest that Dr. Anwar (from Arizona), one PA (also from Arizona), and one local PA would be better for the community than the three SuperTrack doctors we already have:
| Specialty/Experience | SuperTrack | Anwar |
|---|---|---|
| Family Practice | + | |
| Urgent Care | + | |
| Emergency Care | + | |
| Internal Medicine | + | + |
| Hematology | + | |
| Oncology | + | |
| Cardiology | + | |
| Skin Care | + | |
| Can treat patients under 18 | + |
