 |
 |
Donald Blanchon, director of Whitman-Walker Clinic, announced plans to cut staff this week because some financial services will be outsourced. (Blade file photo by Janelle Zara)
|
|
|
| | |
| |
|
|
| | |
HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO J COMMENTS
 
Whitman-Walker Clinic has hired a new chief medical officer, filling a position that had been vacant for more than a year, and put in place a new, state-of-the-art electronic record-keeping system for patient medical records, its chief executive officer announced this week.
Donald Blanchon, who assumed the Clinic’s top leadership post in May 2006, said the Clinic has nearly completed its goal of transforming itself into the Washington area’s preeminent primary care medical facility for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. At the same time, he said the Clinic has retained its role as the city’s largest provider of treatment and support for people with HIV and AIDS.
The changes announced this week also included layoffs of an unspecified number of employees, due in part to the Clinic’s plan to outsource some financial functions.
Blanchon said the Clinic has named Dr. Raymond Martins, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine, as its chief medical officer.
Martins most recently worked in private practice in Arlington, Va. He worked from 2004 to 2005 at the Dupont Circle Physicians Group, with a practice in HIV and internal medicine. He has an extensive background in HIV/AIDS care and gay health issues, according to biographical information released by Whitman-Walker. He also has served as chief medical resident at George Washington University Hospital.
Martins joins Whitman-Walker three years after the Clinic announced it was facing a financial crisis. Blanchon, a managed care executive, has been credited with stabilizing its finances and working with the Clinic’s board to transition the longstanding gay clinic into a full service, primary care provider.
Blanchon said this week the transition is well under way, with the Clinic seeing a wide range of patients from the gay community, including those with full medical insurance coverage as well as low-income patients who rely on Medicaid and other financial assistance.
Clinic officials have said the Clinic is encouraging gay residents to use its services for all their medical needs, including treatment for non-AIDS related ailments such as high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease.
“Like any medical practice, we want people to choose to come here because of the high quality of our doctors and our high-quality medical services,” Blanchon said.
He said the Clinic’s financial health, while far better than it was two years ago, is being strengthened further through a staff reorganization set to begin this month that includes retaining an outside company to operate its financial management department.
“We need timely and accurate financial information,” he said.
Blanchon said the outsourcing of the finance department would result in “some staffing changes,” including layoffs.
The Clinic currently has a staff of about 220 and a budget of about $24 million.
He said Whitman-Walker continues to benefit from its recent approval by federal health authorities of its status as a federally qualified health center, which, among other things, enables it to obtain greater reimbursement by Medicare and Medicaid for services to low-income patients.
Whitman-Walker’s director of development and community relations, ReGina Newkirk, also disclosed financial information this week showing that the 2007 Capital Pride festivities — for which Whitman-Walker served as chief fiscal agent and organizer — would have pulled in a net profit of about $17,000 had the Clinic not been required to pay $50,000 for liability insurance. With the liability insurance included in the mix, the Pride events incurred a deficit of $32,795, the finance data show.
A statement shows Capital Pride generated $167,103 in revenue and incurred $199,898 in expenses. It shows that Whitman-Walker contributed $100,000 and 12 other local gay groups contributed a combined total of $28,000 in upfront money to pay for Pride-related expenses that had to be paid before most of the revenue was generated during the week of the parade and festival. All of the groups were reimbursed for the upfront money, along with a modest interest payment ranging from $67 to $772, depending on the size of their upfront contribution, the finance statement shows.
The Clinic’s release of these numbers for Capital Pride marked the first time in recent years that the Clinic has provided a partial accounting of the revenue and expenses associated with Pride.
| 
