After appointment of naturopath, Spokane County Medical Society says it wanted a physician on local Board of Health

The Spokane County Medical Society wanted a physician to sit on the Spokane County Board of Health and not a naturopath as the board chose.

“We wanted whoever is on the Board of Health to represent the best expertise in medical issues and public health,” Dr. Dawn DeWitt, president of the Spokane County Medical Society, said in an interview.

The Spokane County Medical Society represents more than 1,000 physicians and physician assistants in Spokane County.

DeWitt said the society sent two letters to Spokane County commissioners ahead of their interviews and voting to nominate new members to the Board of Health.

The first letter, DeWitt said, was to offer to be a part of the conversation on who could best represent the health care community on the board.

The second letter the society sent to commissioners, sent in late January, recommended that they consider for the health care seat on the board Dr. Monica Blykowski-May or Dr. Pam Kohlmeier, both of whom were on Millwood Mayor Kevin Freeman’s interview short-list.

After interviews, the Spokane County commissioners and Freeman unanimously voted to nominate Alycia Policani, a naturopathic physician, to the board to represent the health care community. The commissioners later confirmed Policani’s nomination.

The commissioners are rebuilding the Board of Health to comply with House Bill 1152, which dictates which community members must be present on local boards of health. One of those board members is supposed to represent the public health or medical provider category.

Commissioner Al French, as well as Commissioner Josh Kerns, defended their picks in subsequent meetings.

Kerns pointed out that naturopathic physicians were one profession among a long list in the legislation that could be placed on the board to represent the health care community.

“There was a lot of latitude given in this bill,” Kerns said.

French said the health district, led by Health Officer Dr. Francisco Velázquez, has a wealth of knowledge in the “traditional medical approach.” He liked that Policani was not only a naturopathic physician but also once a consumer of public services, like WIC, and that she could bring her experiences to the board.

“The board does not make medical decisions – those decisions are left to the health officer and his staff,” French said. “The health district employs 30 other licensed doctors or medical professionals at the district, and those are the same professionals who have served the community for years.”

The Board of Health controls the Spokane Regional Health District’s budget. And targeting resources to public health issues is a concern of the Spokane County Medical Society.

“Let’s say we have a big problem with smoke in Spokane and air quality: you would hope that Board of Health would look at the budget and say, this is an important issue, how can we address this?” DeWitt said.

The society’s executive committee believes a physician is the most qualified to assess and evaluate public health due to the years of training it takes to become a doctor.

“It’s really challenging for all of us as scientists to sift through the vast amount of information that’s there and try to apply it appropriately to an individual patient or community, and I don’t think there’s any doubt that M.D. and D.O. physicians are better at that because of their training and the standards they have to meet,” DeWitt said.

DeWitt said she is not necessarily against having a naturopath on the board as long as there’s an expert in public health or medical health, too.