The Coastal Women’s Health medical practice will close its doors April 30, as obstetrician-gynecologist Carey R. Martens moves his office to Shelton effective May 1.
Letters to his patients dated Feb. 23 arrived in the mail this week. In them, after announcing the closure, he wrote, “It is important that you continue with appropriate medical care; therefore I will be happy to see you at my new office located through Mason General Hospital in Shelton.”
On Feb. 28, Martens posted on Coastal Women’s Health’s Facebook page, “In 2007 I started Coastal Women’s Health with the intention of this being my lifetime practice and location. Along the way there have been many challenges and sacrifices but even more blessings.”
Martens wrote he had been interviewing for a while and “received many offers that would take me far from here. Whenever I came back from an interview, I knew that this was my home,” prompting him to take the position in Shelton. “This move will allow me to still be able to take care of anyone who would like to continue with me, keep close to the community I came to call home, and disrupt my family as minimal as possible.”
He stressed his move is “by no means a referendum on the care delivered by the nurses, techs, staff and my colleagues (at Grays Harbor Community Hospital). I do, and will always, trust them with my care and my family’s. Please know that if you choose to transfer to one of my colleagues, Drs. (Nicholas) Hallak or (John) Eiland, you are in good hands.”
In the letter to patients, Martens wrote the closure was “due to constraints placed upon small, private practices such as ours.” A few days later in the Facebook post, he said, “I just cannot continue to have the practice I want to have and provide the care I know you all deserve in the current climate.” Martens does not clarify the specific constraints and climate that prompted the move. He was not available for comment Thursday or Friday.
While the practice is moving, the family is not.
“We’ve been here over 10 years, we are locals now,” said Martens. “We love it here, we will continue to live in the Harbor, and my children will continue to attend school here.”
