Shared Calling: Brothers find their medical home in Moses Lake
JOEL MARTIN | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 5 months, 1 week AGO
Drs. Zachary, left, and Nathan Thomas at the Columbia Basin Home and Garden Show in February, where they were displaying their side project, exterior home lighting. Both brothers are family physicians in Moses Lake, Zach at Samaritan Healthcare and Nate at Confluence Health.
FILE PHOTO
Joel Martin has been with the Columbia Basin Herald for more than 25 years in a variety of roles and is the most-tenured employee in the building. Martin is a married father of eight and enjoys spending time with his children and his wife, Christina. He is passionate about the paper’s mission of informing the people of the Columbia Basin because he knows it is important to record the history of the communities the publication serves. | March 29, 2026 12:00 PM
MOSES LAKE — Some professions run in families: a lawyer’s children may follow in their parent’s footsteps, or a teacher may inspire their children to teach. But occasionally a profession just fits two brothers, like medicine did Zach and Nate Thomas.
“We both from young ages had always felt like medicine was a good occupation,” said Dr. Zachary Thomas, a family physician at Samaritan Healthcare. “I think when we were kids, it was like, ‘Yeah, we're going to be doctors.’ Nothing ever pulled us from either side, so we just kept on that goal.”
Zach is the elder brother by about a year and a half, which meant he completed his studies ahead of Dr. Nathan Thomas, who practices family medicine at Confluence Health. The brothers grew up in a small town near Calgary, Alberta, they said, and came to the States for medical school and residency. Nate attended medical school in El Paso, Texas, and completed his residency in Reno, Nevada in 2022. Zach went to medical school in Phoenix, where he met and married his wife, who was from Moses Lake. After completing his residency in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 2021, Zach started looking for work.
“We were already in a whole other part of the country, and we had options to go anywhere,” he said. “When I was (anticipating) graduating residency and scrolling through hundreds of different jobs, Moses Lake popped up in a list. I probably would have kept scrolling if I didn't know that it was my wife's hometown. I clicked on it, and it seemed to be a great job in every different metric that I was using, and having her family here was a bonus.”
Zach told his brother about how much he liked living in Moses Lake, he said, and about a year later Nate had earned an offer from Confluence.
Today, both are married with children – Nate and his wife have three, and Zach and his wife are expecting their fifth this summer.
The Thomas brothers recently took on a side venture, selling exterior home lighting, which gives them a chance to work with their hands and get out of the clinics. Still, caring for patients is the first priority, Zach said.
“When they have health issues, (people) realize how important their health is to them (and) that can be some of the most vulnerable moments in their life,” Zach said. “And then they turn to a doctor to help them through those difficult points in their life. It can be really meaningful to be able to be that person, to help someone in their moment of need.”
ARTICLES BY JOEL MARTIN
Quincy National Night Out scales down
QUINCY — Quincy’s National Night Out was more compact this year, which worked out well, said QPD Sgt. Joe Westby, who’s in charge of event planning for the Quincy Police Department. “National Night Out is a big event, and the fact that we’re able to shrink it up is like a breath of fresh air,” Westby said. “If you're always doing the same thing, it's kind of nice to switch things up and see how it works.” National Night Out took place Thursday on the block of C Street next to the police station, a shift from previous years when it was held at Lauzier Park. The smaller space meant fewer emergency vehicles for children to explore, but it also meant less walking for attendees. Grant County Fire District 5 brought a fire truck, and the Grant County Sheriff’s Office had a patrol boat. Renew, the Grant County behavioral health agency, had a booth and so did Quincy Partnership for Youth. Veterans Operation Creation sang the national anthem, and the Quincy Animal Shelter brought kittens that piled over each other making friends with passersby. As before, the QPD served grilled hot dogs.
Quincy Police retirements leave big shoes to fill
QUINCY — There are some big shoes to fill at the Quincy Police Department. “We’re losing 48 years of experience between them,” Quincy Police Chief Ryan Green said at the retirement party for Capt. Jorge Trujillo and Det. Damon Powell Thursday. Trujillo, who grew up in Sunnyside, has been with QPD for 19 years, he said, coming on as a patrol officer fresh out of the military. From there he served as a field training officer, a detective and finally captain. “I consider him my left-hand man,” Green said. “He runs the operations side of the house … He knows the agency very well, and he knows the community.” Trujillo has some projects around the house to tackle now that he’s retired, he said.
Big fun on a small scale
Wheat Land Communities’ Fair opens Thursday
RITZVILLE — The Wheat Land Communities’ Fair isn’t as big or as flashy as some of the county fairs around central Washington, but the folks who keep it going like it just the way it is. “It’s somewhere you can go and get an old-time traditional feeling, and you’re comfortable letting your kids roam the grounds and experience all that it has to offer,” said Board Member Lori Williams. “It’s more of a feeling than (one) specific thing,” The fair starts Thursday in Ritzville and runs through Sunday. Starting Friday, the 56th Ritzville Rodeo will take place alongside the fair at the rodeo grounds. This year the entertainment budget was expanded, Williams said, to be able to offer more fun that’s covered by the cost of admission. For the kids, there’s face painting, balloon art, Lego crafts, races, contests and games. Children can also ride on a little train towed around the fairgrounds behind a tractor.