Published: Tuesday, March 19, 2013, 12:01 a.m.

The Arlington hospital is joining with two other public hospitals, Island Hospital in Anacortes and Skagit Valley Hospital in Mount Vernon, to consider its options.

The three hospital boards are scheduled to give final approval tonight to seeking proposals from other regional health care organizations on how they might work together.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 5 p.m. at the WSU Extension Center, 16650 Highway 536 in Mount Vernon.

One of the reasons Cascade Valley is considering the change is that smaller community hospitals have a tough time making it financially. Partnerships mean they can offer the services of other larger health care organizations, said Clark Jones, the hospital's chief executive.

"It's difficult to be a small hospital in a suburban or urban area," he said.

The type of services offered at Cascade Valley tend to be the day-to-day-services that people need most often, such as the emergency room or baby delivery services, he said.

Yet hospitals generally aren't paid very much by insurance companies or government programs such as Medicaid or Medicare to provide these services, Jones said.

Payment is better for specialty services such as heart surgery, brain and stroke services, and intensive care units for infants, he said. But these services are only provided in larger, nearby urban and suburban hospitals.

Letters requesting business proposals with the three hospitals will probably be sent to the area's major not-for-profit health care organizations, Jones said.

See the article here:

Arlington hospital may team with health care nonprofit