As Dr. Katherine Oldfield describes her clinic, West Seattle Natural Medicine is “a West Seattle institution.” But right now, that institution is set for closure in mid-January, after 37 years of operation.

Dr. Oldfield first announced the closure to patients after Thanksgiving, She has owned the clinic for about half its life, buying it from Dr. Jeana Kimball in 2002. She is now living in Canada, but that’s not why the clinic is closing – she says in an explanation on the WSNMC website that it’s closing because the doctors are moving on. The clinic website has information about them and their future, including three who will be part of a new naturopathic clinic in West Seattle, and one who’s opening her own local clinic in February.

Having a sizable staff has been a hallmark of the clinic’s growth in the past decade and a half, including lots of mentoring, Dr. Oldfield writes, saying she’d hoped to eventually sell the clinic to members of its staff. But, she continues: “Then came 2020. The global pandemic has sickened and killed people we love, changed the way we function as a society, affected the poor, people of color and women disproportionately and it has made it very expensive to run a small medical clinic. We secured a PPP loan to keep operating, we switched to a telemedicine/in-person hybrid model and scrambled to adapt in order to keep functioning. The stress on our doctors and staff and my inability to visit and manage in person during this critical time because of the US/Canadian border closure eroded our cohesiveness as a group. That is a story of many small businesses right now. Financial stress and uncertainly are the characteristics of this year and sadly we’ve seen many small businesses close.” But that’s not the whole story – she says a change in state law regarding non-compete clauses meant there was no longer anything to keep someone from leaving and forming or joining a competing business. “Having\ no more doctors to provide care in January has made it impossible to keep the doors open and keep our front desk employees.”

So the clinic is closing January 15th, but, Dr. Oldfield tells WSB, “I am actively looking for either a renter or a doctor who may want to buy the clinic and take over the operations.” In case that doesn’t happen, she also is advertising the building (3256 California SW) for rent. Meantime, the clinic is no longer accepting new patients, and has FAQs for current patients here.