Public Hospital District No. 1 Commissioners Sue UW Medicine Over Strategic Alliance With Valley Medical Center

Several members of Public Hospital District No. 1 of King County have filed a lawsuit against the University of Washington, U.W. Medicine over the University’s Strategic Alliance with Valley Medical Center.

Valley Medical Center Board of Commissioners unanimously agreed to explore a possible strategic alliance with UW Medicine in January 2011. Six months later the chief executive officers of UW Medicine and Valley Medical Center (VMC) announced the formation the

The decision did not come easy.

Commissions narrowly approved the alliance with a 3-2 vote. Commissioners Don Jacobson, Carolyn Parnell, and Sue Bowman voted for it; Aaron Heide and Anthony Hempstead voted against it.

The issue remained contentious through the November 2011 election season and appeared to have settled down — until now.

At its October 1, 2012 meeting the Hospital District Board of Commissioners adopted a resolution to “initiative litigation, if necessary, to determine the validity of the strategic alliance agreement with the University of Washington.” The resolution passed with a 3-2 vote, with Commissioners Sue Bowman and Carolyn Parnell dissenting.

Secretary of the Board Sandra Sward confirmed Friday that a lawsuit had been filed, but declined to provide further comment.

Patch made several calls to President of the Board of Commissioners Dr. Paul Joos, and Valley Medical Center Director of Marketing and Communication Liz Nolan for comment. We will update this article when we get more information.