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The Franciscan Medical Group plans to open a new clinic in Port Orchard in August. The group is a network of primary-care and specialty-care clinics and is part of Franciscan Health System, which owns several hospitals in Puget Sound and is planning to build a new one in Gig Harbor.
The Franciscan Medical Group currently has 26 clinics, but the Port Orchard practice (located on 451 Sedgwick Road) will be its first one in Kitsap. The network had only six clinics in 2002.
“(South Kitsap) is a growing community and we believe this clinic will fill a need as the community grows,” said Gale Robinette, Franciscan spokesman. The Franciscan Professional Building on Sedgwick will have other occupants, but the Port Orchard Medical Clinic will be the main tenant. Franciscan also plans an outpatient physical therapy practice in the same building.The clinic will have two physicians. Dr. Don Palencia, a Port Orchard resident, is already seeing many Port Orchard patients at the Gig Harbor Medical Clinic, where he practices as part of the Franciscan Medical Group. Those patients will be transferred to the new location, according to Franciscan. Palencia will be the clinic’s medical director.
The second physician, Dr. Tamara Shilling, is also a Kitsap resident whose husband works at the Bangor submarine base.
“They will provide family medicine for people all ages (children and adults) at the clinic,” Robinette said. |
