Boone Health increasing primary care capacity to address dire need

The award-winning organization has hired 8 new doctors, each of which can see 1,800 patients, with more coming by the end of 2025.

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Throughout the country, health care continues to experience shortages of providers in key areas, especially primary care. Here in mid-Missouri, Boone Health has been diligently working to address those shortages. Over the past 12 months, Boone Health has hired 25 medical providers, eight of whom are primary care providers while the others are offering health care in key areas, including general surgery, endocrinology and metabolism, gynecologic oncology, radiology, rheumatology and palliative care.

“Across the nation, there has been a strong need for primary care providers, and the mid-Missouri community is no different,” said Drew Wilkinson, Boone Health vice president of provider and ambulatory operations. “We’ve been working hard to address the issue here locally, and we’ve attracted several wonderful and experienced providers to join the best health care organization in mid-Missouri. We have more work to do, but we expect that these new providers will help us address the need for health care in both Columbia and many of our rural areas in the 26 counties that we serve.”

Each new provider can accept approximately 1,800 new patients. Individuals wanting to establish primary care with a Boone Health provider can visit call 573-815-3000 or visit https://boone.health/services/primary-care/ Additionally, Boone Health is expecting at least four more primary care providers to join the organization by the end of 2025.

“My fiancé and I were looking for that next chapter in our lives and a community to call our own,” said Dr. Louis Gerges, a physician who recently joined the Boone Health Nifong Primary Care Clinic. “When care is rooted in community it becomes more than practicing medicine—it becomes belonging. I feel as though we found that community in Boone Health.”

Recently ranked as the No. 1 hospital in mid-Missouri and in the top 100 hospitals for overall service in the nation and for patient experience, over the past several months Boone Health has announced several expansion efforts, including a standalone breast care clinic that also offers the only prosthetic bra shop in mid-Missouri, an expansion of the primary care clinic in Glasgow, and expanded hours at the Boone Health Convenient Care clinic.

“We’ve been growing, and we have plans to continue the expansion and improvement of health care in mid-Missouri,” Boone Health CEO and President Brady Dubois said. “Yet, even with all of our plans for expansion, we will never let go of the caring environment that we’ve built for more than 100 years. That focus on each, individual patient is what makes Boone Health stand out, whether you’ve come in for an annual physical or you’re at the hospital for a procedure. Every nurse, every doctor, every therapist, every employee is going to ensure that the focus remains on you, the patient, and that we get you back doing what you love as fast as possible.”