Dr. Carey R. Martens of Coastal Women’s Health in Aberdeen announced late in February he was closing the clinic and taking a position with Mountain View Women’s Health — part of Mason General Hospital in Shelton — starting May 1. At the time of his initial announcement, he stated his reasons for leaving included “constraints placed upon small, private practices such as ours.”

Monday afternoon, Martens spoke with The Daily World to clarify his reasons for closing the practice he’s run for a decade and gave his impressions on the current climate of health care in the region.

“Challenges here, where do I start?” he said. “Primary care is the base for any health care system. When we don’t have that base, patients leave the community for their primary care.”

Primary care physicians are family medicine/general practitioners. When local patients need to travel out of town to find one, referrals for other medical services — tests, procedures and the like — are normally referred to other out-of-town sources, cutting off revenue flows for local services.

Martens said the loss of four pediatricians from Grays Harbor Community Hospital in 2016 was especially problematic and he placed the blame solely on hospital administration.

“The loss of the four pediatricians can be attributed to poor management by Grays Harbor Community Hospital,” he said. “Losing all four hurt our faith in the hospital.”

Hospital spokeswoman Nancee Long said only two of those pediatricians were employed by the hospital. Two other providers, closed their private practices that year, she said.

“We currently have two pediatric providers,” said Long. “One is a pediatric nurse practitioner, Shawna Brown, and one is a board-certified pediatrician, Dr. Jarrett Riley.”

In response to Martens placing the blame for the loss of the pediatricians on the hospital, Long provided the following statement from the hospital: “We respect Dr. Martens and wish him luck in his new practice. (This hospital) is committed to providing our physicians, both employed (by the hospital) and locally owned practices, with the best possible accommodations we can offer. We understand that there are times in which a physician must make choices that are better for their families or professions. (The hospital) looks forward to providing the community with excellent physicians for the Harbor and continues to recruit in many areas. We are very happy to support and encourage patients to see Dr. Jarrett Riley and Shawna Brown at Harbor Pediatrics.”

Martens also encourages any of his patients who don’t follow him to Shelton to place their trust in Riley and Brown.

Currently the hospital has five “locum physicians credentialed with the organization to provide pediatric hospital based services,” said Long. “They don’t all five provide services each month, but they take calls and support Brown and Riley.”

While Grays Harbor Community Hospital continues its search for a provider to fill the void left by Martens, his position will also likely be covered by one or more “locum,” or temporary replacement, physicians. These physicians are highly qualified but put an increased financial strain on the hospital.

“Locum providers and traveling nurses do cost the organization more than a full-time employed local physician,” said Long. “We pay for lodging, travel and agency fees for these services.”

In addition to the shortage of doctors, the ever increasing reporting responsibilities “are cost-prohibitive for a small office like this,” he said. With more reporting requirements from the federal government on the horizon in 2018, Martens said he realized the time required by these reports was undercutting his ability to treat his patients. The move to Shelton means he will be an employee of the hospital and won’t own his own practice and some of the administrative burdens that come with it.

“I started putting out feelers last year, and announced my decision to close the practice to my staff in November,” said Martens. He interviewed in several areas, including the Midwest and southern United States, “but it just didn’t feel right,” he said. He interviewed in January for the job in Shelton and took that offer for a number of reasons.

“I went there and met with administrators, physicians, and discovered their turnover rate was not that high,” said Martens. Outside the hospital itself, Shelton-area primary care physicians also tend to stay put, from what Martens has observed.

Martens restated he thinks the staff and physicians at Grays Harbor Community Hospital are top-notch and he will continue to trust his health and the health of his family to them.