Mill Creek Beacon - Your Hometown News Source

Patients and employees were greeted by a stark note taped to the front door when they arrived at The Donaldson Clinic last Monday morning, Feb. 19.

The unexpected closure of the physical rehabilitation clinic in the Mill Creek Pavilion on the Bothell-Everett Hwy left employees speechless. Patients arriving for scheduled therapy sessions were worried about what would happen to their medical records.

In a letter to his employees, James Donaldson explained that he had kept the Mill Creek office open after closing clinics in Seattle, Tacoma and Mukilteo over the past 10 years in an effort to generate positive cash flow.

“It finally caught up with us,” he wrote. “It was getting increasingly difficult to stay current with our facility lease, making payroll, and the ‘death knell’ came when one of our banking lenders, chose to freeze our banking accounts because we could not stay current with them.”

Donaldson played professional basketball for more than 20 years after graduating from Washington State University in 1979. He spent part of his career with the Seattle Supersonics and was named to the National Basketball Association all-star team in 2006 as a member of the Dallas Mavericks.

The 7-2 center is a member of the Pac-10 Hall of Fame as well as the Athletic Hall of Fame at Washington State.

He tried to explain the decision to close his last clinic in the heartfelt letter to his employees.

“For 28 years, I have poured my heart and soul, and personal resources into the business, to the point where, three years ago, it started taking a toll on my health, which is continuing to impact my physical, emotional and mental health to this day.”

Donaldson responded to an inquiry from The Beacon to assure his patients that their medical records will be “stored securely” and made available upon request to patients who want to continue their treatment with another provider.

“Again, I’m very sorry that the end came so suddenly,” he concluded. “But me and our professional advisors, had been working feverishly to stay on top of all of our challenges. In the end, it just became too much and we cannot overcome them.”