Doctor who built healthcare network retiring
Published 1:30 am Tuesday, May 26, 2026
PORT ANGELES — When Dr. Michael Maxwell arrived in Port Angeles in 1991 to join Family Medicine of Port Angeles, it operated with the feel of a traditional small-town medical practice. Physicians shared administrative duties, often cared for parents, children and grandparents from the same families, and they worked in a clinic in a converted house on C Street.
More than three decades later, Maxwell is stepping away from a very different system — one he helped reshape — after a career that moved from the exam room to the complexities of running a community health center.
Maxwell, who plans to retire Friday, said his career shift wasn’t part of a long-term plan so much as a necessity to adapt to a rapidly changing healthcare environment.
“I’m a family physician by avocation and training, and I am a healthcare administrator by necessity,” he said.
Maxwell came to Port Angeles after training in Spokane, drawn by the community and Family Medicine itself, which was established by Dr. Stan Garlick in 1979.
The practice soon outgrew its C Street location, and the business moved into a new, larger clinic on Eighth Street.
But as Family Medicine expanded, the broader healthcare system was beginning to change around it.
Garlick said new models of primary care, evidence-based treatment protocols and computerized medical records reshaped how physicians practiced medicine.
“All those things really changed the landscape for primary care doctors,” Garlick said.
Physician retirements and difficulty recruiting young physicians to a rural community had left the clinic struggling to meet growing demand, with long waits for appointments and many people unable to find a primary care provider.
“If you did not have a doctor or insurance, you weren’t going to get one,” Maxwell said.
That pressure came to a head around 2014, when Maxwell and others saw what he described as an “access crisis” in the region.
Rather than sell to a hospital system, as many practices were doing, Maxwell, Garlick and Drs. Rob Epstein and Kate Weller chose to reorganize Family Medicine as a federally qualified health center (FQHC).
At the time, Clallam County was the last of Washington’s 39 counties without one.
The transition meant closing the private practice and reopening as a nonprofit governed by a patient-led board — a move Maxwell said was driven less by business concerns than by patient need.
“We said it’s not necessarily in our best interest, but it’s in the community’s best interest if we make this change,” he said.
In 2015, the clinic secured FQHC status along with a $700,000 federal grant that helped launch the reorganization.
The designation also brought funding and incentives aimed at medically underserved communities, including loan forgiveness programs that helped attract providers to rural areas and support the creation of a residency program.
“There’s no way we could start the residency unless we were a health center,” Epstein said. “That was a big thing for me, and Mike was supportive of that.”
Being an FQHC also allowed the clinic to expand beyond primary care.
Behavioral health services were added in 2018, followed by dental care in 2019, vision services in 2023 and an in-house pharmacy in 2024.
Before North Olympic Healthcare Network (NOHN) opened its dental clinic, Maxwell said, “The only place adults with Medicaid could get oral care was the ER.”
In the past decade, Maxwell said, NOHN has added about 25 providers and expanded care to roughly 17,000 additional patients.
“We get another 150 patients every month,” he said.
In 2023, NOHN opened the 11,000-square-foot Eastside Health Center in the former Edna’s Place property on First Street. The organization also expanded beyond traditional clinic walls. Maxwell pointed to the launch of NOHN’s mobile health clinic in 2021 as another effort aimed at bringing care directly into the community.
Garlick said Maxwell helped guide NOHN’s expansion by steadily building services while managing the operational and personnel challenges that come with growth.
“Mike just did a great job of moving along and adding things as one thing at a time,” Garlick said. “And besides that, he was good at handling personnel things and just an all-around nice person.”
That work also meant personal trade-offs.
As NOHN grew, Maxwell stepped away from seeing patients about five years ago to focus on administration.
“That was hard for me,” he said.
Now, he said, it is time to step away entirely — a decision he made about two years ago after health issues reinforced for him that “no day is guaranteed.”
Looking back, Maxwell said the accomplishment he values most is expanding access to care in a community that once struggled to provide it.
“Our goal is that everyone gets access to care regardless of the ability to pay,” he said.
Now, after decades spent building that system, he is preparing for something unfamiliar.
“I’ve never had more than two weeks off in my life,” Maxwell said.
“I want to see what it’s like to go someplace and just kind of be present.”
Retirement event
A retirement celebration for Dr. Michael Maxwell will be held at 5 p.m. today at Field Arts & Events Hall, 201 W. Front St., Port Angeles. The event is free and open to the public.
________
Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
