Columbia Family Medical Group and University of Missouri Health Care, both in Columbia, Mo., are integrating healthcare resources through a formal affiliation.
Here are six things to know about the affiliation.
1. The affiliation brings together MU Health Care and Columbia Family Medical Group, which has provided primary care in central Missouri for 40 years. MU Health Care has more than 500 university physicians, including approximately 70 family and community medicine providers. Columbia Family Medical Group, an eight-provider group, comprises six board-certified and board-eligible physicians, one advanced nurse practitioner and one physician assistant, along with 32 other health professionals, support and administrative staff.
2. Columbia Family Medical Group physicians have privileges at Boone Hospital Center in Columbia. With the new affiliation, they also will have privileges at University Hospital, MU Women's and Children's Hospital, and other MU Health Care facilities, according to a news release.
3. Under the new affiliation, Columbia Family Medical Group will keep its unique identity, and Columbia Family Medical Group physicians and staff will continue to serve patients at the same location, officials said.
4. MU Health Care will establish a separate corporation for the affiliation.
5. Mitch Wasden, CEO of MU Health Care, expressed excitement about the affiliation. "This affiliation will allow both Columbia Family Medical Group and University of Missouri Health Care to create new opportunities to collaborate, improve and promote high quality care for patients in central Missouri," he said in a statement.
6. George Prica, MD, medical director of Columbia Family Medical Group, echoed Mr. Wasden, saying: "This new affiliation between Columbia Family Medical Group and MU Health is a model for integrating healthcare resources to better serve patients, while preserving the historic strengths of Columbia's community physicians."
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