Letters to the editor for Oct. 18, 2019, in The Olympian

Some issues with doctor’s legal action against Kaiser

I am a retired Kaiser physician from Olympia. Some thoughts on Dr. Alper’s legal action:

1) Patient Satisfaction Scores are an important tool — the scores are based on patient responses shortly after a visit and scored 1-5. As a doctor, your scores are compared to those of peers in the same department. Low scores require explanation. Letters of complaint are fewer in number than those associated with the surveys.

2) Evaluating Shareholder status is much more than patient satisfaction scores: they include a) peer comments on shared work b) support staff (nurses) comments on work c) quality of work as defined by certain measures (might include Over prescribing narcotics), d) participation in work outside of the department (staff meetings/extracurricular work).

3) Kaiser uses centralized pharmacies for a patient population that touches over half a million patients. You should see a higher volume of narcotics than those in local commercial sites.

4) The notion that Kaiser profits from over-prescription of opioids conflicts with my personal experience: The profile of opioid use for my patient population was periodically brought to my attention for careful/detailed planning with safe and appropriate prescribing the explicit goal.

5) Pregnancy is in fact stressful on a medical team; it leads to a loss in staffing, sometimes for long time intervals. My experience is that despite this, co-worker attitudes are supportive; I am unaware of any doctor losing their job or ability to obtain shareholder status based on a work history of pregnancy.

Re-elect Joe Downing, Port of Olympia

An important non-partisan race November 5th is the re-election of Joe Downing, Port of Olympia Commissioner.

The Port of Olympia’s responsibilities include the Marine Terminal, Marina, boat works, airport, and leasing of commercial properties. As a citizen and retired Navy Captain, I view continued operation of the Marine Terminal as a necessity for several contingencies including: Joint Base Lewis McCord shipments, Coast Guard emergency response and delivery of rescue supplies to the South Sound during a significant natural disaster such as an earthquake or volcanic eruption that disrupts I-5.

The Port commission has three members. Based on my experience attending Port meetings, I perceive that two including Joe will ensure continued operation of the Marine Terminal while the other will not.

At a July candidate forum that I attended, a question arose on continuing operation of the Marine Terminal. Joe clearly understands the importance of the terminal and sees continued operation as paramount. In contrast, his opponent fails to recognize the importance of the Marine Terminal to the South Sound. In fact, I believe were she to be elected, she would vote with the Commissioner not supporting the terminal in an effort to cease operations. Once closed, it would be virtually impossible to reopen the Marine Terminal in case of an emergency.

Joe Downing is a thoughtful, diligent and responsible Port Commissioner endorsed by Unions working Port related family wage jobs, many local elected officials and first responders. Please join them in voting Joe Downing November 5th.

This story was originally published October 17, 2019 at 11:25 AM with the headline "Letters to the editor for Oct. 18, 2019, in The Olympian."