Effective Dec. 7, Fulton Family Health Associates will join the University of Missouri Health Care system, officials announced Wednesday.
As part of their affiliation agreement, Fulton Family Health Associates will retain its unique identity with its current staff and physicians continuing to serve patients at 2613 Fairway Drive. MU Health Care will employ the staff of Fulton Family Health Associates, and the three physicians and one physician assistant will be employed by the MU School of Medicine, according to a statement released Wednesday.
"Our goal is to build on Central Missouri's already-excellent reputation as a destination for primary care," MU Health Care Chief Executive Officer Jonathan Curtright said in that statement. "This affiliation will allow both Fulton Family Health Associates and University of Missouri Health Care to create new opportunities to collaborate, improve and promote high quality care for patients in central Missouri."
This announcement comes weeks after MU Health and an investment group created uncertainty surrounding the future of the Fulton Medical Center hospital and its associated clinic. MU Health Care officials, on July 18, announced intentions to sell its 35 percent ownership shares back to FMC Inc., allowed under their operating agreement with NueHealth (also known as NueTerra), which owns the remaining 65 percent. On July 24, NueHealth officials announced plans to close the FMC hospital by Sept. 22; plans for the clinic were not announced.
Nueterra, of Leawood, Kansas, developed a memo with sale information about the Fulton Medical Center hospital and outpatient clinic operations, and set forth a timeline. This timeline designated Friday as the date for interested parties to submit non-binding "Letters of Intent, including proposed purchase price." Local officials have said the asking price is $6 million, although the memo didn't mention a price. A NueHealth official declined to comment Wednesday.
Bruce Hackmann, economic development director at the Callaway Chamber of Commerce, and other parties from the chamber, county and city of Fulton, have been meeting often since NueHealth's announcement to close FMC, trying to devise a plan to keep doors open. The hospital has the county's only emergency room.
"The picture will come a little clearer on Friday if NueHealth will share this information with us," Hackmann said about interested buyers. "It will give us some idea if there are interested parties or aren't there."
Fulton Family Health Associates includes three physicians - Robert Pierce, Lisa Pierce and Brice P. Windsor, a physician assistant and 13 other health professionals, support and administrative staff. Robert Pierce is partner and founder of Fulton Family Health Associates.
"Fulton Family Health Associates and MU Health Care share a common goal of advancing patient care, medical education and medical research," he said in a statement. "This new affiliation between Fulton Family Health Associates and MU Health Care is a model for integrating health care resources to better serve patients, while preserving the historic strengths of Fulton's community physicians."
Fulton Family Health Associates has provided primary care in Central Missouri for 28 years. Both Robert and Lisa Pierce completed residencies in family medicine at the MU School of Medicine. In addition, Robert Pierce earned a master of science degree in public health from the MU School of Health Professions. Lisa Pierce served as a faculty member in the MU Department of Family and Community Medicine from 1991-96.
Windsor, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, graduated from A.T. Still University in Kirksville. Following medical school, he completed his family medicine residency at Offutt Air Force Base in a joint program with the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He is certified by the American Board of Family Medicine and is member of several professional organizations, including the American Academy of Family Physicians, the Missouri Association of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the American Osteopathic Association.
Under the new arrangement, patients of Fulton Family Health Associates will still be free to choose the health care provider or hospital where they would like to receive inpatient and outpatient care. Fulton Family Health Associates physicians also will have privileges at Ellis Fischel Cancer Center, the Missouri Orthopaedic Institute, University Hospital, MU Women's and Children's Hospital, and other MU Health Care inpatient and outpatient facilities.