Covering board meetings can be boring. But reporter James Robinson –- perhaps tipped off -– knew he had a story while covering the Jefferson Healthcare Hospital District’s board of commissioners. The board discussed creating an alliance with its Port-Angeles-based counterpart. It was supposed to be a secret, but a board member mentioned the plan with Robinson recording every word, including shocked responses from other board members. That’s what good, independent newspapers do.

The two hospital districts need ways to access more capital and economies of scale, so, apparently, bigger is better. Both need better ways to serve those not in Port Townsend and Port Angeles. And they must cope with the bizarre, politicized, complicated realm of health-service policies and reimbursements, especially Medicare.

Both districts are partially taxpayer supported, which is good because no hedge funds dare come in and establish a for-profit hospital –- that has occurred in other parts of the country where for-profit, rural hospitals went bankrupt, leaving patients with no local resource.

Now that the plan is public, let’s not just focus on any open meetings abuses, real or imagined. Instead, let the hospital districts explain their plan and how it would benefit all residents. Meanwhile, I’ll follow The Leader for further developments.

John Kendall

Port Angeles