Сеть клиник North Olympic Healthcare Network откроет новую медучреждение в Форксе

North Olympic Healthcare Network to open clinic in Forks Published 1:30 am Tuesday, September 1, 2026 PORT ANGELES — A $650,000 grant that has been awarded to North Olympic Healthcare Network will be used to establish a clinic in Forks. NOHN learned Aug. 13 it had received the New Access Point grant by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). The healthcare provider applied for the grant two years ago when Dr. Michael Maxwell was CEO. “We’re a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), and two years ago, there was an opportunity to apply for a New Access Point grant,” new CEO Terri Sabella said. “At the time, our understanding was there were literally hundreds of community health centers and FQHC lookalikes around the country that applied for this funding.” The funding from Congress didn’t come through to award the grants two years ago, though. The grant applications were set aside then, Sabella said. “Earlier this year, we received a phone call from our project officer at HRSA who handles the community health center program asking us if we would still be interested in opening the location in Forks and if we would still be able to perform the project as described in our application if it was to be awarded in the future and we told them yes,” she said. “We said, ‘Does this mean we’re getting an award?’ and they said, ‘It doesn’t mean anything. We’re just checking to see if people are still interested and if this application process was still valid.’” The next thing NOHN heard on the matter was Aug. 13, when it was awarded the grant. “We were surprised and excited,” Sabella said. The grant will be used to establish the NOHN West End Clinic at 430 Terra Eden St. in Forks. Under the obligations and timelines of the grant, NOHN has 30 days to submit its project work plan and then another 90 days to verify with HRSA that the site is operational, according to a news release. The Hoh Tribe in Forks owns the property at 430 Terra Eden St. “(The tribe) bought (the property) a couple of years ago with the intention of opening a clinic and were never able to open the clinic themselves,” Sabella said. “They had been in agreement with NOHN when this New Access Point was put in. They wrote a letter of support and were willing to rent us the clinic if we were funded. With everything that happened, it just kind of got set aside.” The property was designed to be a clinic so it is already “pretty close to turn-key,” Sabella said, adding that NOHN will be able to start seeing patients there within 120 days. The NOHN West End Clinic will offer primary care services, seeing adults and pediatric patients. “In relatively short order, we’ll be able to provide behavioral health services, addiction treatment and ultimately we’ll have some preventative dental services there as well,” Sabella said. NOHN has providers and staff who will travel to Forks to initially open the clinic, but the goal is to identify and hire providers and staff who already live in the West End. “We would love to have people that are from the community there serving the community,” Sabella said. Although this will be NOHN’s first clinic on the West End, the healthcare provider already has a presence in Forks through its weekly visits with a mobile health unit. Once it’s open, the clinic will provide 40 hours of healthcare services a week. “The other exciting thing is, once we have a bricks-and-mortar presence in Forks, we can use our mobile unit to go beyond Forks,” Sabella said. “I think the initial inclination is Neah Bay, in that area. We feel like we have folks who drive into Forks to see us there, so if we took our mobile unit out there, that would be more convenient for them.” NOHN was not expecting New Access Point grants to be funded this year, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn of the award, Sabella said. “I know there has been an interest in how to create sustainable points of access in rural communities, so we’re grateful that our application was recognized among many,” she said. “This has been years in the making.” Forks has a “wonderful hospital” that’s providing some primary care in the area, Sabella said, but NOHN is happy to join forces with them and collaborate to provide more access to healthcare in the community. ________ Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at [email protected].