Dr. Michael Fishman, a longtime radiologist at Olympic Medical Center, must cut his ties to the hospital or sell or close his own radiology clinic in Sequim, hospital officials say.
A policy implemented Wednesday by Hospital District No. 2 commissioners says radiologists who use the public medical center’s equipment must have exclusive-employment or personal-services contracts with OMC.
Without such a contract, a doctor cannot use the center’s machines.
On the other hand, the hospital cannot pay a private radiologist to perform imaging work, the policy says.
Caught between these public vs. private jobs is Fishman, a radiologist at the hospital who also owns a magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, business in Sequim.
Fishman once was under an exclusive contract for six years as a member of Peninsula Radiologists, a group of four doctors whose pact expired in 2003, said Eric Lewis, OMC’s chief financial officer, on Thursday.
“Since then, we’ve just been going along trying to head for a new contract” Lewis said.
Contract not renewed
Although the contract was not renewed, Fishman continued working with the medical center while maintaining his own practice in Port Angeles and Sequim. He said his title at the hospital is medical director of imaging.
Hospital Commissioner Harlan Knudson said he thought Fishman had been offered an exclusivity contract. So did Craig Miller, legal counsel to the hospital board.
Fishman declined to comment.
