Decatur Medical Services and

Community Health Centers Join

Drs. Larry W. Richard and Mark E. Easter of Decatur Medical Services (DMS) and Gary C. Rees, CEO of the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa (CHCSI), announced that they have signed agreements to work together for the future of healthcare in Decatur County. “Dr. Richard will continue to see patients in Leon, and I will remain in my current location in Lamoni,” Dr. Easter assured the community. “Current practice sites will remain open until arrangements can be made to combine the two Leon and two Lamoni sites with one site in each town,” he continued.

“This is a very important step forward for healthcare in our county, and we have a lot of people to thank for making it possible,” Darrell E. Vondrak Administrator of Decatur County Hospital emphasized. “The hospital believes that this action is necessary to not only benefit the current physicians and nurse practitioners, but also to increase our ability to recruit the next generation of providers to our community. Without that prospect, we would not be able to continue providing healthcare to our Decatur County neighbors.”

“The merging of the two organizations will transition over a number of months,” Rees indicated, “as we will have to receive approval from the federal government for practice sites and insurance coverage.” The Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa receives a grant which is overseen by the HRSA Bureau of Primary Health Care and requires a change of scope whenever a new practice site is added. “We will begin working together immediately to insure a smooth transition,” Rees stated.

“Coming together with Decatur Medical Services has been a goal of the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa since we first began writing the grant several years ago,” Marvin Sword, chairperson of CHCSI, stated. “We never gave up thinking that this could happen, and we are elated to be able to make this announcement.”

“The plan is to join our two practices over the next several months,” Richard said. “By doing this, we hope to assure that we can all work in concert using our medical expertise cooperatively. We can utilize all our resources towards quality healthcare for our neighbors in Decatur County and hope to add new services and have more convenient hours for our patients,” he added.

“Now patients of Decatur Medical Services and the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa can participate in a special discounted prescription program called 340B,” Dr. Patricia Magle, Medical Director of CHCSI said. “While patients are encouraged to use the pharmacy of their choice, discounted prescriptions from this program can only be filled by CHCSI’s partner pharmacies which are Decatur Family Pharmacy in Leon or Varsity Drug in Lamoni,” Magle added.

According to Richard, “Decatur Medical Services and the Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa plan on integrating both of their staffs into one organization. We believe that if we start now with this goal in mind we can accomplish it by the time we have merged into one organization,” he added.

Decatur Medical Services physicians and nurse practitioners have provided patient care services for nearly 25 years. They currently practice at 1404 NW Church Street in Leon and 802 East Ackerley in Lamoni. The Community Health Centers of Southern Iowa opened its doors to patients in April 2005 after several years of efforts by community healthcare activists. CHCSI’s practice sites are at 302 NE 14 th Street in Leon and 911 East Main in Lamoni.