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Health Care Provider Impact Statement for Klickitat County

Number of docs in 2009: 19. That's 9.2 physicians per 10,000 population, the tenth highest rate in eastern Washington. Washington's rate is 21.2 physicians per 10,000; the national average is about 20.2 per 10,000. Washington imports about 85% of its physicians from other states or nations.

Health professional breakout:

---Klickitat Valley Health in Goldendale has nine physicians, including one who recently finished a residency program there, in addition to two physician assistants and one nurse practitioner.

---Skyline Hospital in White Salmon (which also operates a clinic in Stevenson) has nine MDs, one DO, five physician assistants and two nurse practitioners on staff. It also has 41 MDs and three DOs who occasionally practice at the hospital.

---The North Shore Medical Group, which operates a clinic in White Salmon, has eight MDs, one DO, six physician assistants and three nurse practitioners on staff.⁴

Health professionals in Klickitat County who graduated from Washington schools:

---Klickitat Valley Health has at one UW School of Medicine graduate on staff. At least two have served their medical residencies in Washington.

---The North Shore Medical Group has three UW medical graduates on staff; one served a residency in Spokane. It also employs two nurse practitioners who graduated from WSU's nursing school.⁶

Goldendale and White Salmon have residency programs for new Washington doctors. White Salmon also serves as a site for medical students looking to practice their skills in a rural setting between their first and second years (Rural/Underserved Opportunities Program).⁷

About 600 medical professionals in 26 eastern and central Washington communities serve as preceptors (instructors) for UW/WSU medical students. About a third of those work in small cities and towns. In addition, Klickitat County hosts some of the 378 professional preceptors who work with WSU pharmacy students in eastern and central Washington.

Health care/social assistance employment in Klickitat County ⁹: 274 (out of 6,400 jobs). It's the county's eighth-largest employer, providing about $2.7 million in payroll, about 3.9% of the county's total payroll.

Tripp Umbach estimate of annual impact of Spokane medical school on Klickitat County (2009):  four jobs, $780,000 in economic impact, $62,000 in local taxes

Tripp Umbach projection of annual impact of Spokane medical school on Klickitat County (2030): 34 jobs, $5.9 million in economic impact, $410,000 in local taxes