Year 21 No. 5 $1
MAY 2013
STAY & FLY | PAGE 8
PROPOSAL FOR HOLIDAY INN AT AIRPORT WILL MOVE AHEAD
Skill gap seen in applicants for jobs in high-tech fields Survey shows half of Washington’s technology employers report difficulty filling positions By Evan Marczynski evan@bbjtoday.com
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PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham, which is Whatcom County’s sole hospital and largest employer, was set to become part of the new regional health care system. PHOTO COURTESY OF PEACEHEALTH
CALLED OFF
PeaceHealth, Catholic Health Initiatives cite discord among shared services in suspending talks to create new health care system By Evan Marczynski evan@bbjtoday.com
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fter announcing a joint venture last summer to combine their operations in the Pacific Northwest and create a new regional health care system, leaders of PeaceHealth and Catholic Health Initiatives knew the negotiations would be complicated. But nine months into a due diligence process before the partnership was expected to begin in July, talks were suspended as the organizations said they had hit
an impasse over how to integrate their services. The partnership was driven by a desire to cut costs, handle more financial risk in caring for Medicaid and Medicare patients and streamline operations as elements of federal health care reform took effect. But the scale of the deal presented too many complexities for either group to meet agreeable terms, executives from PeaceHealth and CHI, both of which are nonprofit Catholic health care systems, said. “It is the fragmentation that
lives within health care across all the providers that makes that so difficult,” Peter Adler, a senior vice president and chief strategist for PeaceHealth, said. “We need to keep working on that.” With the health care industry anticipating significant change over the next decade, synergy among hospital operators is thought to be a key element in achieving more efficient service— and in the end, better outcomes for patients currently facing
fter making a lap around the conference room in Fox Hall at Bellingham’s Hampton Inn, Will Hobbs takes a short break from mingling with dozens of potential employers, almost all with jobs to offer. Hobbs is at the Bellingham TechExpo and Job Fair, hosted by the nonprofit Technology Alliance Group for Northwest Washington, to scope out jobs available from local technology employers. The 41-year-old, who works a graveyard shift doing security at Silver Reef Casino in Ferndale, said he has about eight months left before finishing an information technology degree program at the local branch of Charter College. He said he is interested in a career in network security, and he
thinks he will likely start out at a small company. But right now, it’s difficult for him to narrow down the options. “It’s so hard to really decide on what I want to do,” Hobbs said. Once he’s completed school, Hobbs will enter an industry with employers who say it is getting harder to find skilled and qualified applicants to fill job vacancies. A 2012 survey completed by the state Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board, the results of which were released in January, found that out of an estimated 60,000 Washington employers who hired new workers last year, one in five had difficulty finding qualified applicants. While unemployment has dropped from recession-level highs in much of Washington,
SKILL GAP | Page 22
INSIDE THIS ISSUE Tech entreprenuer center opens downtown | PAGE 13 Alliance between digital firms, nonprofits and commercial real estate agents has created a new entrepreneurship center, devoted to getting new tech companies off the ground in downtown Bellingham.
Questions & Answers with Corrinne Sande | PAGE 12 Computer security expert and educator has helped garner national acclaim for the Computer Information Systems program at Whatcom Community College.
PEACEHEALTH | Page 23
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