By SCOTT D. JOHNSTON

Two new businesses got started in Ocean Shores last month. Coastal Primary Care is taking patient applications now and will begin offering in-home primary care medical services January 9. Meanwhile, no applications are needed and service is well underway at the new Ocean Pours Taproom on Ocean Shores Boulevard.

Coastal Primary Care

Board certified Family Nurse Practitioner Ann Allen has a string of professional letters after her name that is almost as long and varied as her career: RN, ARNP, BSN, MSN, FNP-BC. After 20 years during which she “dabbled in almost everything as a nurse,” including work with a surgical medical mission group that assisted persons in rural states of Mexico and eight years in the Nurse Corp of the US Navy Reserves, she is excited about opening her own primary care clinic in Ocean Shores.

She will be supported by Tiffany Rinke, a Certified Medical Assistant who has logged a decade as a CNA. They worked together at Seamar Community Health Center in Ocean Shores for nearly a year until this past October, and recognized in each other a common commitment and compassion for patient care.

One major difference between theirs and traditional clinics, Allen explained, is that the office is each patient’s home. Hers is a home visit only practice, that can provide the usual range of clinic diagnostic, treatment and prescribing services. Allen said she will serve a wide range of patients from once a year health and wellness sessions to “extremely complex work with specialists.”

She said she will be able to treat “chronic, stable medical problems” as well as “acute episodic medical concerns.” She will also work with pain management patients “within the Washington State Prescription Board guidelines.”

Allen said wants and expects to spend more time with patients in their homes than what many experience in traditional office/clinic settings. As such, she recognizes she will eventually reach a limit for the number of patients she can handle, and figures “the day will come” when she will have to put new patients on a waiting list. Currently, she’s taking patient applications and will begin doing home visits January 9.

Coastal Primary Care will accept Medicare and several major insurance carriers. They will schedule appointments from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday. They can be reached by phone at 602-361-7144. Their website is www.coastalprimarycarehomevisit.com, and they are about to open a Facebook page.

After the practice is up and running smoothly, they plan to set up an online patient portal system that Allen says will greatly enhance their ability to serve their patients.

Allen and Rinke both come from small towns, and both believe there is substantial need in the North Coast area for a home visit primary care practice. Their experiences at Seamar showed that many patients struggle, some without success, with simple basics like transportation.

The nurse practitioner also said there is considerable evidence that home visit practices result in “higher quality – outcomes are better, patient satisfaction is higher and hospitalizations are decreased.”

Since they started taking patient applications December 22, Allen said she has “already visited a few homes to drop off packets.” Rinke noted of prospective new patients “how excited they are,” and Allen added, “I’m appreciative that the community is willing to go with us on this journey.”

Ocean Pours Taproom

It should really come as no surprise that the new Ocean Pours Taproom, at 759 Ocean Shores Blvd. NW, came about as the result of “a lot of beer drinking and brain storming,” according to co-owner Randy Gardner, of Shoreline.

His cousin, Roy Seeman, lives in Olympia and owns a house in Ocean Shores. With Seeman’s godson, Chris Shifman, they make up a trio that has frequented the area for years and “long lamented the lack of a beer destination type establishment” near the beach, Shifman explained.

About six months ago they noticed a small building for rent in a good location, just north of the Shilo Inn, and the dream started to become a reality. Three months ago, Shifman moved to Ocean Shores from Portland, OR, where he has been teaching college level Latin and English, to oversee the remodeling needed to accommodate 16 taps (they could expand up to 32) serving an open main area and a separate party room.

Ocean Shores Taproom has already established a strong social media presence on Facebook and Instagram, and that seems to be working. “We were getting lots of questions before we opened, Shifman said. Even so, their “soft open” on Friday, Dec. 14, surprised them. “We poured 269 pints our first day. That’s pretty incredible,” and didn’t include several growler fills.

“It seems to be working; everybody seems to really like it,” Shifman enthused. “The people in Ocean Shores have been fantastically supportive!”

Shifman is the general manager, and the “Cicerone Certified” beer expert who will be responsible for implementing what the partners see as the true taproom concept – a huge variety of craft beers that is in constant rotation, such that they will offer literally hundreds of different brews over the course of a year.

“I’ve tasted every beer, wine and soda,” as part of the quest “to serve excellent craft beer in Ocean Shores,” he continued. “Even the sodas we serve are craft.” They have employed a sophisticated software system that offers detailed information about all of their current offerings and lets customers keep track of and rate the brews they’ve tried, and is accessible online as well as at the Taproom.

Come spring, they plan to open an outdoor beer garden, and they’re already making arrangements for an Ocean Shores Beer Fest in early September. They’ve made a deal for quick delivery to the taproom of most menu items from nearby Double Barrel BBQ. They also intend to do monthly promotions that will give a portion of proceeds on specific beers to several area non-profits.

For the winter, Ocean Pours Taproom is open Wednesday through Friday 2-11 p.m., Saturday noon-11 p.m., Sunday noon-9 p.m., and closed Mondays and Tuesdays. They plan to expand their hours in the spring. Their phone is (360) 940-9180 and their website is at www.OceanPoursTaproom.com.