Medical Care in Pt. Roberts

We are currently down in Bellingham pursuing a little medical care in the enormous medical complex that is housed there.  I'm used to being around hospitals, but that was two decades ago, and the changes in those intervening 20 years have been amazing.  There's the hospital and then there's dozens of buildings surrounding the hospital holding all kinds of specialized facilities, some belonging to the hospital, some not, but a place for every organ, every individual system, every conceivable need.

This stay at St. Joseph's (we're in to the 2nd day and Ed is the patient while I'm the family member) has been very good so far, given that one is dealing with a hospital.  We have no complaints whatsoever; although we might be unhappier if things weren't going well.  But it is reassuring to feel that, despite the isolation of Pt. Roberts, that there is good medical care accessible, although you do have an hour's drive to get to it.  But once you're here, you are here.

The other benefit we have come to more fully appreciate is the fact that Point Robert's Wellness Clinic provides not only initial wellness care but also, and even more important in this case, connection to physicians.  If it were up to us, I suspect, we might still be phoning around trying to get a physician to accept us as Medicare patients.  Or at the very least, trying to find one who would accept us and about whom we had any reason to feel confidence.  Virginia, the Saint of the Wellness Clinic, did that work for us.  And those who set the Clinic up originally had the foresight to make sure that that service was part of the foundation of the clinic. At least as far as I understand it, St. Joseph's-affiliated physicians are in some way obliged to accept referrals from the clinic.  We have surely had that be our experience, and are very grateful for it.

It's one thing to say that a hospital has to accept you in the Emergency Room, but they only have to do it until you are stabilized.  After that, you might well be on your own, even with insurance.  Having assured physician access means a lot.