After 55 years, The Doctors Clinic will close its Bremerton location on Wheaton Way in November 2014, it was announced this week.

According to Connie Mears, communications specialist for The Doctors Clinic, all physicians currently practicing at that location will be relocated to clinics in Silverdale and Port Orchard.

The Doctors Clinic Urgent Care in East Bremerton also will relocate to Silverdale in November.

“We regret the inconvenience this change creates for our long-time and loyal customers and patients,” said Linda Brown, executive director of The Doctors Clinic. “This change became necessary for the financial health of the company.”

Reasons cited for the change include reducing expenses. Brown said the increasing financial pressures on the health care industry, as both commercial health plans and government reimbursement shrink, has made it even more important that we deliver quality care in a cost-efficient way.

She also said changing population growth patterns and traffic flows have made Silverdale the most accessible location for the majority of Kitsap families.

The move will also help with physician efficiency with the anticipated 2017 relocation of Harrison Medical Center’s inpatient care to Silverdale. That will make Silverdale-based physician practices more efficient as doctors travel between the hospital and clinic during their work day, Brown said.

The Doctors Clinic, then called The Jackson Clinic, began in 1949 in downtown Bremerton, in what is now the Kitsap Sun building. In November 1959, the practice moved to 2512 Wheaton Way, in Bremerton. The Doctors Clinic currently has 10 clinic locations throughout Kitsap County with approximately 80 physicians.

Doctors relocating to Cavalon Place in Silverdale are: Kit Baldwin and Ben Sy, Pulmonology, Jack Birnbaum, endocrinology, Dan Frum, dermatology, Shilpa Rastogi, nephrology.

Relocating to Silverdale West in Silverdale are: Family Practice doctors Arunas Banionis and Tiffin Clegg.Dr. Young-ki Paik, Internal Medicine, will relocate to Port Orchard.

For more information about the move go to www.TheDoctorsClinic.com

About The Doctors Clinic:The Doctors Clinic is a multi-specialty medical group with more than 75 health care professionals providing services at 10 clinical locations throughout Kitsap County. Founded in 1949, The Doctors Clinic has been providing comprehensive medical and surgical care to Kitsap families for more than 60 years. TDC Urgent Care is currently available in Bremerton, Central Kitsap and Poulsbo.