Mike Salsbury/The Olympian
Medical records from Memorial Clinic branch offices are delivered to the central office on Friday by movers (from left) Justin Trudell, Donald Stansbury Jr., Donald Stansbury and Ron Stroup. Clinic records that do not go to physicians will be stored at the main clinic until December.

Move-out day at Memorial Clinic

Patients, staff reminisce about clinic's better times

LORRINE THOMPSON, THE OLYMPIAN

"The patients have been really loyal. I'll really miss them." -- Louise Bolender, worked with clinic for 18 years

Originally published June 30, 2001

OLYMPIA -- With a moving truck outside the door, scattered patients trying to pick up a final prescription or pay a bill, and staff carrying boxes through quiet corridors, Memorial Clinic ended its reign as the county's largest and oldest medical clinic at 5 p.m. Friday.

Although the clinic officially dissolves Sunday, few offices will be open to treat patients today.

As Memorial Clinic transforms from a bustling network of connected staff and patients into a building leasing space to individual doctors, it carries with it the memories of doctors, patients and workers who remember what the clinic was as far back as 50 years ago, and as recently as December.

Thurston County was fresh from the World War II years in 1949 when four doctors decided to come together as a clinic so they could work together and recruit doctors to the little-known city of Olympia.

The county had fewer than 45,000 residents -- compared to more than 207,000 now -- Lacey didn't exist yet as a city, and Tumwater was the size that Yelm is today.

Dr. Phil Vandeman was a young pediatrician in Ohio who answered an ad to join the clinic, becoming the county's first pediatrician. He moved into the clinic's small building on Fourth Avenue next to Capitol Lake.

"I liked the idea of a group thing together," said Vandeman, 85, who retired in 1984.

Until the 1970s, Vandeman and the other physicians frequently made house calls when patients couldn't come to the clinic.

Clinic doctors also served on night call for Providence St. Peter Hospital, which did not have an emergency room at the time, said Dr. Thomas Hazelrigg, who joined Memorial Clinic as its first surgeon in 1950.

"I liked to be with other people in the different specialties because it rounded out my background," Hazelrigg said.

The growing clinic of physicians also wanted to build a base of good family and specialty doctors for their community, he said.

Winifred Olson, 85, was among the clinic's first patients, remembering when her doctor was called away to serve in World War II, then returned to become part of a new Memorial Clinic.

Her family had been patients of Dr. James Lux. Many years later, Olson is still with the clinic and a patient of Lux's daughter, Dr. Sarah Lux.

"That's the beauty of a small town," Olson said. "We've had wonderful care there. Something went amiss. I don't know what."

'Almost like family'

Margot Pearson King's father was one of Memorial Clinic's first accountants, and the clinic "was almost like family," she said.

Now 66, she was 19 when she joined the clinic. Her four babies were all delivered by her Memorial physician; her children grew up under the care of Memorial pediatricians.

Though King moved to Lilliwaup near Hood Canal a year ago, she still drives to Thurston County to be seen at Memorial Clinic.

"It's always been there," she said. "If your doctor was busy, there'd be someone who could fill in for him. The doctors are such a part of your life."

Though the clinic grew to as many as 90 physicians, moved to Lilly Road and branched out into satellite offices, the family atmosphere remained, workers say.

"When I started there, they were just getting computers," said Louise Bolender, who has worked with Memorial for 18 years.

Staff members have enjoyed an interconnectedness with each other, and Bolender has worked with patients for nearly 20 years who she knows she will not see anymore.

"The patients have been really loyal. I'll really miss them," she said. "I just wanted people to know it has been a great place to work."

Bolender also worries about co-workers who have not yet found jobs. With the loss of so many physicians, and with the remaining physicians using smaller staffs, the jobs are hard to find.

"It was essentially a large family," said nurse Anne Overby, who started working at the clinic in 1994. Physicians and staff had potato bakes, holiday celebrations, decorating contests and an annual Christmas party.

Overby was among "the first wave" of nurses and staff to get layoff notices in March, she said, "the first time in my 26-year career I got a pink slip."

They had been shocked to hear from administrators in January that the clinic could not continue as it was, she said.

"The hardest part for me was watching my co-workers cry. It was awful," she said.

With every week after the announcement, a few more staff members would leave for new jobs, a constant reminder of the end that was coming, Overby said. Doctors were leaving steadily as well.

"It was terribly traumatic. Lots of depression. I wish there had been one of those employee counseling services to help."

Overby chose to take a nursing job in Tacoma when she left in March, realizing there would be fewer physicians in Thurston County, and that many of them striking out on their own would not be able to afford hiring a registered nurse.

Overby likes her new co-workers, but "I cannot forget my old family, which no longer exists," she said. "It feels very confusing. I have experienced feelings similar to divorce and death in the family."

Sadness, confusion

Some patients are feeling similar grief.

Mary and Steven Morgan had been cared for by former Memorial Clinic family physician Dr. Dennis Peck for 15 years, along with their two children, one of whom has cerebral palsy.

Though Peck left to practice in Pierce County at the end of 2000, the Morgans have not searched for a new physician because "we dread it," Mary Morgan said.

"I imagine there are a lot of people hurt by this shift," she said. "Your family doctor isn't exactly like the family meter reader after all."

The loss of Memorial Clinic leaves sadness, confusion about the complex health financing problems that sank the clinic, and concern about what the future brings.

"I think this is terrible, especially when it's generated out of misguided government," said Hazelrigg, who has remained a patient of the clinic to the last day.

Extensive governmental rules and poor payments for care combined to sink the clinic, he said.

The loss is "a shame. It took eons to build it," he said.

In a letter to The Olympian, Overby sent her thanks to the doctors who "have decided to stay for now. You are courageous people. I hope you are blessed with good co-workers and great business skills to help you stay in our community."

Vandeman, like many, said Memorial Clinic is a good example of why the "whole medical system is in trouble and has to change."

But change is hard, he said, and the loss of Memorial Clinic might not be the last straw before change happens.

"I suppose it will have to get worse before it gets better," he said.

Lorrine Thompson covers Thurston County and health for The Olympian. She can be reached at 360-754-5431.

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