The new Doctor’s Clinic facility currently under construction in Silverdale within sight of the new Harrison Silverdale campus.

   After almost 60 years of serving the Kitsap community, The Doctors Clinic plans an expansion that would add a new clinic as well as new services. A new, 53,000-square-foot building is currently under construction in Silverdale. Slated to open doors for patients next spring, it will accommodate physical therapy, full-service imaging and ambulatory surgery units — all new services The Doctors Clinic will add to its array of offerings.
   Several current physicians will also move to the new center, including gastroenterologists, dermatologists and others. The move will allow other physicians to expand into vacated space.
   The decision to open a new clinic in addition to the current seven locations was part of the organization’s strategic planning, said CEO Linda Brown. “We meet each year and talk about growth,” she said. “For example, our orthopedics and sports medicine grew too large to accommodate the needs. We decided to put all the growth ideas together into one building.”
   The building will have another added benefit — it is located next to the Harrison Hospital’s Silverdale campus, and physicians will have easier access to their patients. This is the first major expansion in a long time for The Doctors Clinic, which was founded by a group of half-dozen physicians in 1945 but since has grown to nearly 300 employees, in addition to 58 physicians. Four of those physicians joined the staff last year.
   The idea behind the expansion is to bring more choices and convenience to the patients, Brown said, especially to those who end up traveling to Tacoma or other great distances for additional services. It serves the clinic’s mission of delivering excellence in patient care.
   “The new services are not much different from what’s available locally,” Brown said.
   “For our patients it’s much more convenient to come in for a ‘one-stop shopping.’”
   Although the expansion could cut into the patient base of other local providers, it may also benefit health care options by demanding more competitive practices, and it will also help serve a growing population. The physical therapy market, for example, could probably comfortably accommodate the current needs, especially as the public becomes more educated on its benefits, said John Carlson, owner of Kitsap Physical Therapy.
   Carlson estimates less than 10 percent of KPT patients come from The Doctors Clinic, but says the physicians have always been fair in their referrals and he hopes they continue that trend. Besides, patients still can decide for themselves what practice to use — which means a potentially healthy environment where competition could only make services better.
   “Physical therapy has become more competitive in the last five years,” said Carlson, whose 13-year-old practice also offers athletic performance and sports medicine, hand therapy, aquatics and other specialty programs. “I think we’re starting to get to the saturation point but public education helps, as people understand the benefits of ancillary health care like chiropractic, massage therapy and acupuncture.”
   Brown said that while convenience for patients was the main driver of the expansion, The Doctors Clinic did consider the health-care market, trying to fill the more urgent needs. “What we tried to do is evaluate how many physicians are in the community currently,” she said. “Our physicians are very dedicated to this community and to providing an array of services in Kitsap County. Our emphasis is on our patients.”