The Washington Park Direct Care Clinic located next to the post office has been providing health care since the 1940s. It will be moving to a new location near Stillwater Estates next month.
Dr. Lisa Neff and Dr. Paul Williams are the two providers at the Washington Park Direct Care Clinic.
The new location for the Washington Park Direct Care Clinic is under construction on Colonial Drive near the Stillwater Estates.
Since the end of World War II, patients have been able to get the majority of their health care needs tended to at Washington Park Direct Care Clinic in Centralia.
Located in the historic building at 208 W. Centralia College Blvd., the clinic will be moving to a new building located at 2526 Colonial Drive near the Stillwater Estates in Centralia.
The doctor’s office has had many names since it was established by Dr. George Parke and Dr. Ross Galvin in 1946. Several of the original patients still come in, owner Dr. Paul Williams said. Because they have had a few doctors over the course of their lives, all at the same office, the continuity of care has improved their level of service, he said.
“These patients have been coming here for years,” Williams said.
Williams worked in the clinic with his father, Dr. David Williams, who was hired as a doctor in the clinic by Parke in 1976. David Williams retired in 2007.
Practicing modern medicine in a building built in 1928 can be challenging at times. Modern wheelchairs are wider than the doorways and the walls are thin and far from soundproof.
“It wasn’t set up for today’s HIPAA compliant medicine,” Williams said.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is the federal law mandating patient privacy.
Setting up the WiFi was difficult because the walls had metal in them that the signals could not penetrate, he added. The building had to be rewired to support connections to the internet.
The new building is specifically designed for the kind of medicine the clinic practices. Compared to the historic clinic which was a mortuary before the clinic moved in, Williams said.
The National Register of Historic Places, which the building is listed on, says the building was constructed in 1928. The Lewis County Assessor's Office lists the building as being built in 1915.
Lewis County Assessor Dianne Dorey said buildings built before 1968 did not have building permits so the construction year is based on estimations by architects who look at the style of the building.
Washington Park is a direct care clinic, meaning most services can be provided at the office, Williams said. Each one of the providers in the office, Williams and Dr. Lisa Neff, each have 600 patients, which means they can spend more time with each patient and get to know them and what is going on in their lives.
Aside from being able to spend more time with their patients, the prices are cheaper compared to other clinics with insurance-based policies, Williams said. It operates with a membership-based service in which patients pay $49 a month and have an unlimited number of half-hour visits. Prescription and lab fees are given to patients for wholesale prices, which can range from $6 to $10 for the labs and $10 to $20 for the medicine depending on the prescription and test.
Williams said it is modern medicine with old-fashioned values. The patients have the cellphone numbers of their doctors and can call them around the clock any day. The doctors make house calls and can come to give stitches or handle other emergency-room type situations, Williams said.
The clinic switched to this form of care three years ago because Williams and Neff were tired of how practicing medicine was being interrupted by insurance companies and regulations.
The old-fashioned values will follow the pair to the new clinic. The old building has been purchased by local entrepreneur Neil White. He is known for his work restoring the Centralia Square, Aerie Ballroom and The Hub City Club.
White said he and his wife plan on restoring the upstairs apartments, and one will be privately rented. The front one will be restored and decorated in 1920s Paris style. White and his wife plan to use it for a while but may turn it into a rental in the future.
As for the ground floor, White said he was unsure what he was going to do with it. He and his crew will take a closer look at it once the clinic has moved this October, but he said it will no doubt have a historic feel.
