Portland Clinic to close downtown location due to safety concerns for staff, patients

The Portland Clinic announced Sunday that it would be shuttering its doors downtown due to ongoing public safety issues in the neighborhood. The physician-owned medical clinic located at 800 SW 13th Ave in downtown Portland has provided care and treatment to area residents for more than 100 years. According to police records, officers have been dispatched near the facility over 60 times this year, 27 of which were in October, for various violent and nonviolent crimes.

Holly Young, the Portland Clinic’s director of marketing and public relations, informed patients about the closure on Sunday in an email obtained by the Oregonian. In mid-December, the clinic would “begin closing to patient care,” Young said, explaining that it would start the transfer of providers and patients to other clinics during that time.

“Patient health and safety are our top priorities. We continue to face significant issues around our building. The dynamic situation is one reason of several that we’re making this change,” Young wrote.

The Portland Clinic provides internal medicine, laboratory services, radiology, ophthalmology, dermatology, gynecology, and other medical services at its downtown location, according to its website. Patients will be moved to its other locations in Portland, Beaverton, and Tigard beginning next month and continuing through Feb. 2025, the clinic said.

Mike Benner, a spokesperson for the Portland Police Bureau (PPB), told the paper in an email that patrols have increased in the area and that the agency was “aware of issues around the Portland Clinic, namely issues involving drug use and drug dealing.” Police records show that officers have responded to more than 60 dispatch calls for various crimes including assaults, threats, thefts, and drugs.

The downtown clinic location will retain 100 employees for administrative purposes, according to Young. Dr. Amy Mulcaster, CEO of the Portland Clinic, said in a letter to patients that shuttering the clinic was a “very hard decision.”

This is the latest business to shutter in Portland, as the progressive-led city struggles to restore public safety after decades of disastrous pro-criminal leftwing policies.