The BCFM and UnityPoint Transition Moves Forward
The transition from UnityPoint Boone to Boone County Family Medicine (BCFM) continues to move full speed ahead with November 1st as the target date.
“Hospital and clinic staff, and the physicians have been working well together to make this transition as smooth as possible,” says Kim Schwartz, Boone County Hospital (BCH) Assistant Administrator, Physician Clinics. “We are looking forward to having the additional physicians and employees on our staff.”
Dr. Sascha Parsons joined BCH and began providing medical care at BCFM (a BCH affiliate) on South Marshall Street on July 11th. Dr. Trisha Filipiak will join BCH on August 29th and will continue working in the UnityPoint building through the transition on November 1st when it becomes BCFM. Dr. Brian Mehlhaus will join BCH on November 1st. The UnityPoint staff that have been hired by BCH will transition over gradually this fall. If you were/are a patient of Parsons, Filipiak or Mehlhaus at UnityPoint and you would like to continue your care with them, please call UnityPoint to have your medical records transferred to BCFM.
After November 1st, there will be two Boone County Family Medicine clinics. The current BCFM on South Marshall Street will be come known as BCFM South, and the new clinic in the UnityPoint building will become BCMF North.
Unfortunately, Dr. Joel VanderMeide and Dr. Alex VanderMeide will be leaving the Boone community. Dr. Joel will continue his present position until October 28th; Dr. Alex’s last day will be August 12th.
Two locum tenens Dr. Julia Heaton and Dr. Mercy Okoye have been hired to join BCFM in mid-September and will stay on board until permanent physicians have been hired.
“We understand this can be confusing and we are doing our best to make the transition as easy as possible for our patients,” says Schwartz. “We do believe that having all of our physician in one coordinated group will ultimately prove to be beneficial for our clinics, our hospital and our patients.”