Kim Vanatta’s parents didn’t intend to settle in the Tri-Cities.

They moved here from England with their young daughters to take jobs working at the Hanford nuclear site north of Richland. They expected to stay for two years.

But instead, they made a home here. And now Vanatta is raising her own young children in the area and giving back in a significant way to the community that helped shape her.

She’s a primary care physician, treating adult patients. 

With a mounting doctor shortage across the country, state and locally, she did most of her medical training in the region and then chose to stay in the Tri-Cities area to practice medicine.

Dr. Vanatta joined Prosser Memorial Health’s Benton City Clinic last fall. 

“It’s amazing. They’re in tune with the needs of patients and staff,” she said of the locally owned and operated health system, which includes a hospital in Prosser and a network of services and clinics.

Vanatta joined the profession at a time when doctors are greatly needed.

Nationwide, more than 100 million people live in areas designated as “primary care health professional shortage areas,” according to KFF, an independent health policy research, polling and journalism organization. In Washington state, the number of people living in a shortage area is 3.4 million, and nearly 800 physicians would need to be added to meet demand.

By 2034, the country could see a shortage of up to 124,000 physicians.

Locally, Trios Health in Kennewick and Kadlec Regional Medical Center in Richland both started residency programs in the last 10-plus years in part to bolster the physician pipeline.

Residency is an intensive period of hands-on training that comes after medical school.

For Vanatta, a career as a doctor is something she’d envisioned for herself for many years.

“I wanted to be a veterinarian for a long time, and then I transitioned to (wanting to go into) medicine probably in middle school. It’s something that I’d always had my eye on and worked towards,” she said.

She graduated from Richland High School in 2008 and went on to the University of Washington. Thanks to Running Start, she already had an Associate in Applied Science by the time she set foot on campus, so she was able to finish her undergraduate studies in biochemistry and biology by age 20.

By then, she was ready to take a break from her studies, so she went to work at the Hanford site for a couple of years. During that time, she met her husband, Matt, a chemical engineer.

Eventually, she enrolled in medical school at Pacific Northwest University of Health Sciences in Yakima. She did rotations in the Tri-Cities and then a residency at Trios Health. 

After the residency, she worked for the Pasco-based Tri-Cities Community Health before joining the Prosser Memorial Health system last fall.

She loves being a doctor, she said. And it’s meaningful for her to practice medicine in the community where she grew up and completed her medical training.

She considered practicing elsewhere, but “one of my classmates was like, ‘there’s a huge need here in the area,’” Vanatta recalled. And it’s been rewarding to help meet that need.

“I’ve always enjoyed helping people,” she said. “I like being a primary care provider and seeing people go through challenges with their health and then working together to help them be their best selves.”

Vanatta is accepting new patients. 

Call the Benton City Clinic at 509-588-4075 or go to prosserhealth.org for more information.