Welcome to Our New Office

We're now relocated and in full operation at our new office at 708 Kearney St. here in Port Townsend. Our new location stands at the intersection of Lawrence and Kearney, in the office complex with the Dr. Ottaway, Caregivers Nursing Service, and Crossroads Music.

Once we finish up a few details of décor (that probably no one will ever notice but me), we'll invite you to an open house.

This is actually our fourth office location here in Port Townsend. A long and winding road led us here.

All Aboard

I'm taking some liberties in naming my boat as my first Port Townsend office. In the early 1970s, I lived on a trimaran sailboat named Triphoon. At that time I was not intending to go back to the practice of medicine, yet some romantic notion led me to paint red crosses on the sides of the boat and to keep some of the tools in my trade aboard. Occasionally I was called upon to use my skills.

While I was here Port Townsend repairing some hull damage, shipwright Duke Rhoades asked me to stitch up a finger he'd lacerated. I boiled the instruments on the stove, and, my lidocaine having expired, anesthetized him with a bottle of wine. He manfully stood up to the procedure, then regurgitated the anesthetic. His finger healed well, and in return for this service he repaired a hatch cover for the boat. A short time later I sailed off into the sunset, not to return until 1983, this time in a 34-foot trailer with family, my wife and two sons.

Home Office at Historic Point Hudson

Son Joe tests out the EKG on Mike

How can I help you? 1984

We moved into the duplex at Point Hudson and I started my Port Townsend practice in a spare room on the first floor, soon spiffed up with medical paraphernalia, a retiring doctor's exam table and some custom cabinets, one of them still in use at 708 Kearney.

I built the Port Townsend practice while keeping the checkbook balanced doing emergency room work in Arlington, Forks, Port Angeles, and Ilwaco, Washington. In addition I substituted for vacationing docs in Ilwaco, Wrangell, Alaska, and Red Bluff, California.

Monroe Street Clinic is Born

By 1987 the practice was on a firm enough footing, and my spouse sufficiently tired of having a medical practice in the house, that I rented the offices at 242 Monroe Street. There were originally two offices side-by-side, either one alone too small and both together too large. I rented both, had two openings placed in the walls between them and moved in. I was hoping to attract a partner, so rather than put my name on the practice, gave it the name Monroe Street Medical Clinic. It's been a good name, but it doesn't travel well.

Over the years we did have a few people practicing in the office with us: A couple of counselors, Tom Duke and John Staples, and a massage therapist. Naturopath Molly Force used part of our space temporarily while her new office was being remodeled. We have had three nurse practitioners, including the excellent Mary Flick.

Changes in Medical Practice

Never, however, did I find the right physician to join my practice. Over the 25 years that I practiced at 242 Monroe Street, private medical practice in port Townsend slowly gave way to employment at the hospital clinics. When I started out, there were eight self-employed primary care physicians, about six specialists, no mid-level providers, and no hospital-employed physicians. Today, over 50 physicians work in Port Townsend. Now almost all the primary care providers practice in the hospital clinics, mirroring the national disappearance of the self-employed physician.

In case you are wondering, I don't feel like an endangered species, having grown used to the Road Less Traveled. On my entry into medical practice in the early 70s, I recall telling people that I was going into general practice. This was usually met with raised eyebrows, an approving look, and a "Really? That's great! Every other doctor I know is going into some specialty. The world could use more general practitioners." And I'd be flattered but a little puzzled, feeling as most of us probably do, completely normal but wondering if others would agree.

Why Move Again?

Why do we move the office now? Last fall I asked Linda Townsend, local photographer who sometimes fills in for us at our front desk, to go through the office with fresh eyes and give me a list of suggestions to improve the appearance of the office. She gave me a considerably longer and more thoughtful list than I had expected. Certainly there were the things such as the deteriorating paint, hairline cracks in the plaster, and many more blemishes. I'm horrified to say that she noticed one embarrassing oversight on our part. In the room where we were giving a patient intravenous vitamin C to help with her cancer, we had a chart rack with the prominent label "deceased." This was promptly remedied in line with the rule: don't scare the bejeebers out of the patients.

So I took a good hard look at our situation. While our landlord David Williams generously offered to refurbish the office, I could not imagine that happening while we were inside it carrying on a medical practice. Other landlords in Port Townsend, once I made it clear we were looking for new office space, came after me like trout after a dry fly. And the other office spaces available were sized more suitably for a single physician.

Finally, a brand new clinic outfitted much better than we had been able to outfit the Monroe Street premises appealed to the child in me.

So now we are here, having cleaned up after the tornado they call moving. I sort through my tools and ponder our future. The interior decorator and I smooth off the last rough edges. I am most thankful that at this time of my life my health and circumstances allow me to begin again in this new medical office. Well-equipped with the paraphernalia of medical practice and staffed with competent and caring assistants, I can continue the work that I love.

For your part in that, thank you.