Dr. Joel Yelland has been at the Bogachiel Clinic for almost a year now and his life has been an interesting journey getting to this point.

Dr. Yelland graduated from Central Washington University in Ellensburg with a degree in music, then traveled to Vienna, Austria, and studied karate, journeyed through Asia and then back to the US to study medicine at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in New York and then spent some time in the Navy.

He eventually practiced medicine in Eastern Washington but he had been a visitor to the Olympic Peninsula since the age of two and finally about six years ago he began working at the Elwha Clinic and became a full-time resident. He currently lives in Sequim with his wife who is a pediatrician in Port Angeles.

While at the Elwha Clinic, he helped manage an addiction clinic where a substitute drug is given to the addict as a prescription. It is much safer than street drugs and he hopes a similar program can be implemented here.

After leaving the Elwha Clinic, Dr. Yelland got a call to come to Forks and check out the Bogachiel Clinic. He said he found a well-run clinic with great staff, and since being here a year he says, “The patients are quite nice, too.”

“I like little clinics at the end of the road,” Yelland said, “Some doctors are not comfortable with remote places, I love it here.”

Dr. Yelland’s specialty is family medicine. In addition to working at the clinic, he also has several patients at Long Term Care.

In his spare time, Dr. Yelland likes bicycling, recently biking through Vietnam.

Dr. Yelland works three days a week at the Bogachiel Clinic and one day a week at the Clallam Bay clinic.