Family Health Associates is opening a new medical clinic at the former site of the Walla Walla Clinic at 10 NE Fifth Ave., Milton-Freewater. Family Health Associates owns medical clinics in Hermiston, Umatilla and Boardman.

MILTON-FREEWATER — A Hermiston-based family medicine group plans to offer life support to a city bereft of physicians.

Officials with Family Health Associates said on June 4 they are buying the building that formerly housed the satellite offices of the Walla Walla Clinic and will open a new practice here by the summer of 2025.

Before then, new patients will be able access clinical care through telehealth visits.

Owned by the city’s mayor, Lewis Key, the building had been occupied by physicians for decades until the Walla Walla Clinic terminated its Oregon location.

Joleen Horning, Family Health Associates’ practice manager, said the 69-year-old organization owned by Dr. Derek Earl only recently became aware of the empty building and physician void.

Despite offices in Hermiston, Umatilla and Boardman, a potential site farther east had not occurred to leadership. But when a provider couple — Dr. Jonas Oltman and certified family nurse practitioner Jessica Oltman — recently moved to Walla Walla, they became aware of the situation here, Horning said, adding the Oltmans continue to practice in Hermiston.

The building, situated in the north Freewater end of town and once the site of the city’s Safeway, provided space for medical care for decades. The Walla Walla Clinic ended its lease there about 18 months ago.

That move sent patients to Walla Walla or elsewhere, a particularly difficult situation for elderly residents and for those without personal transportation.

Milton-Freewater’s population of just over 7,000 has a median income of about $50,000, the lowest in Umatilla County, according to 2022 census data. At 13.7%, the town’s poverty rate is around 20% higher than Oregon’s rate of 11.9%.

Family Health Associates will accept cash, Medicaid, Medicare and most health insurances accepted in Oregon, Horning said.

While Walla Walla Clinic had been grandfathered in under federal rural health care guidelines and the government dollars that comes with that, Milton-Freewater has outgrown the population limit for that financial help, she added.

The FHA physician will eventually be joined by a nurse practitioner or physician’s assistant, Horning said. The clinic will be open five days a week, with at least four time slots open for same-day visits, and providers will see patients of all ages.

The business is an independently owned primary care medical practice, known for its close knit group of providers and for caring for families for generations, Horning said.

The delay in opening doors in Milton-Freewater can be attributed to severe water damage that occurred over the past winter and calls for a major overhaul of the interior, Key said.

The silver lining is that FHA will be able to rebuild to suit its needs, he noted.

Umatilla County Commissioner Cindy Timmons, a Milton-Freewater resident, had been working with Key and others to convince a health care provider to start a practice here.

In the update on June 4, Timmons said she campaigned on the lack of a doctor from the Oregon-Washington state line to Pendleton.

This move by FHA puts a medical facility in the north end of Umatilla County once again, Timmons said.

Milton-Freewater’s new city manager, Chad Morris, just began his job at the end of May but he already knows a local health care provider is good for those who live here.

“Businesses that provide needed services for residents are always welcome and, hopefully, this will be the most recent of many to come.”