Liberty Bell Family Medicine

04/07/2026

April is always going to be a special time of year for me because it’s the month that I opened Liberty Bell Family Medicine back in 2023. I’ve had this Direct Primary Care clinic open for three years, and I don’t ever want to go back to a traditional model of care. I love my job as a doctor.

Why?

*Being a direct primary care doctor means appointments times are typically an hour. I have time to truly get to know my patients and discuss their health questions in-depth.
*Being a direct primary care doctor means that if my patients have a quick question, they can call me directly. If there’s a simple answer, I can give it over the phone. If there’s not, we can schedule a time to meet, often that same day.

*Being a direct primary care doctor means that I don’t bill insurance, saving my patients and me time, hassle, and money.

*Being a direct primary care doctor means I can make house calls, helping some of our most vulnerable elders and many others in the comfort of their own home.

*Being a direct primary care doctor means I see a handful of patients a day instead of twenty or more. I’ve left burnout behind, and I can guarantee my patients receive higher quality care because of it.

Liberty Bell Family Medicine’s direct care practice opens in Twisp June 1, 2023 by Sandra Strieby Photo courtesy of Kellar and Lauren McCloy Dr. Kellar McCloy, right, and his wife, Lauren, have opened a direct primary care practice at the North Glover Healing Center in Twisp. Offers alternative to...

04/03/2026

02/19/2026

"Fifty-one percent of physicians surveyed said they were feeling burned out." BUT there's a better way to be a doctor. I encourage you to watch this TED Talk with Dr. Rob Lamberts on the universal experience of physicians who leave the system due to burnout and then create Direct Primary Care (DPC) practices that ultimately provide vastly better care for patients and keep doctors from burning out.

Ready to burn out because of a system that seemed to hurt his patients, Dr. Lamberts quit his old practice and started again using an entirely different appr...

02/06/2026

I just read "Lifespan: Why We Age―and Why We Don't Have To" by Harvard researcher David Sinclair, PhD. I found it to be enlightening around the biology, genetics and overall science of aging, all of which is still very much being figured out. It included information on how exercising and diet efforts can slow aging, as well as medical interventions hopefully to come in the near future that may allow us to live healthier longer.

Looking at the year ahead, I’m excited to read a couple more books on the topics of aging and exercise: “Super Agers: An Evidence-Based Approach to Longevity” by Eric Topol, MD, and “Training for the Uphill Athlete: A Manual for Mountain Runners and Ski Mountaineers” by Kilian Jornet, Scott Johnston, and Steve House.

Why “Super Agers?” I have a lot of healthy, very active patients here in the Methow Valley who are already exercising so much more and eating so much healthier than our current preventive medicine guidelines recommend, that it takes seeking out more cutting edge research to know the best ways in which to advise them on how to be even healthier (if possible) and remain as healthy as they can be for as long as they can be.

I've read it a couple of times, but I also plan to reread “Training for the Uphill Athlete” again this winter/spring because it's such a great primer on endurance exercise physiology in general and training for the sports we love to do around here. I’m also training for my next 50 mile race here in May, so it’ll be full of good reminders for me too!