Health group closes event business, lays off 14

The owners of a group of Springfield health care companies on Tuesday closed one of their businesses and laid off 14 employees.

Co-owner Kathleen Farmer said Primary Care Education was shuttered as a money-saving move. The company was founded in 2008 to plan events for Primary Care Network, a nonprofit she co-founded that offers continuing medical education. Primary Care Network will continue to offer events, but the health group seeks to outsource the planning and event management functions of Primary Care Education, which employed mostly meeting planners.

“They did a great job. We just found it would be more economical to partner with another implementation group rather than do everything in-house,” Farmer said. “We are talking to other companies who are interested in primary care networks and the CME events we plan.”

Farmer said some 300 people attend the events, the most popular of which is dubbed Best Practices in Primary Care. Through Best Practices, physicians can earn CME credits at two-day events held across the country. The most recent event was held June 26 in Las Vegas, and it is scheduled to pick back up Oct. 16 in Detroit, according to PrimaryCareNet.org.

Farmer also co-owns and co-founded Headache Care Center and research center Clinvest with Dr. Roger Cady. The group operates out of a single building in Chesterfield Village.