MU Health building two new primary care clinics in Columbia

MU Health plans to build two new primary care clinics in Columbia, one on the south side of town and the other on the northeast side near Battle High School.

CEO Jonathan Curtwright provided an update on the plans at Wednesday’s Board of Curators’ health affairs meeting, where he also presented MU Health’s 2018-2019 strategic plan.

“We want to make it so primary care is available in every quadrant of the city and frankly many other parts of Boone County,” Curtwright told ABC 17 News after the meeting.

Curtwright said they are looking for land right now, and said he hopes to have both clinics up and running in the next two years.

“We’re going to hopefully be able to do that and make it so patients don’t have to come down here to the main campus. They’re going to be able to get their care right where they are,” Curtwright said, adding that the two new clinics would be similar to the one they recently opened in Ashland.

The initiative is all part of a broader goal aimed at bringing health care to every resident in Missouri.

“We want to make it so patients are able to get their care in Jeff City, or at the Lake of the Ozarks or in Kirksville and make it so that we are able to do this without people necessarily having to travel to Columbia get that care,” Curtwright said.

One possible means of achieving that goal is through telemedicine. Curtwright said it’s still in the early stages, but he envisions things like a physician consult via Skype.

“Let’s face it–oftentimes the most convenient place for them [patients] to get care is right in their own home,” Curtwright said.