Newsmakers in Health Care

The new Skaggs Health & Fitness Center will open mid-June at the Branson Recreation Complex, known as the RecPlex. Ryan D. Phillips of Hollister has been named manager of the 7,500-square-foot center. Phillips has been employed at Skaggs Community Health Center in Branson as an exercise physiologist for the past three years, working with Skaggs’ cardiac and pulmonary rehabilitation inpatients and outpatients. He helped create an employee wellness program, served on the hospital’s patient satisfaction analysis committee and was involved in the planning of the new facility.

Family Pharmacy Healthcare Services, a closed-shop pharmacy owned by Family Pharmacy Inc., in Ozark, has joined the Managed Healthcare Associates Long Term Care Independent Pharmacy Network. More than 400 pharmacies and more than 500,000 nursing homes and assisted living residents will be in this new network. The network will represent long-term care pharmacies in negotiations with the new Prescription Drug Plans and Medicare Advantage Prescription Drug Plans that start January 1, 2006 under the new Part D Medicare regulations.

At the Missouri Veterinary Medical Association’s Annual Convention, Dr. Michael Pfander, owner/practitioner of Cottage Veterinary Hospital in Springfield, became vice president of the association. Pfander, as vice president, will chair the MVMA’s Statewide Membership Committee and fulfill the responsibilities of the president and president-elect in their absence.

Gov. Matt Blunt has appointed K’Alice Breinig, chief clinical officer of Freeman Health System, to represent southwest Missouri on the Missouri State Board of Nursing. Breinig has been an employee of Freeman Health System since 1979.

Tammy Mallow-Elly, administrator of Family Medical Walk-In Clinics Inc., was appointed to the national board of the North American Association for Ambulatory Urgent Care as an advisory board member. Her duties will include representing Family Medical Walk-In Clinic and serving other association members around the country from 2005 to 2006. Her appointment came during the meeting prior to the annual NAFAC convention in Biloxi, Miss., at which she was an attendant as well as a guest speaker.

At the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce annual banquet, Freeman Health System President and CEO Gary Duncan was named the Outstanding Citizen for 2005. In 2002, he was presented the Outstanding Alumni Award from Heidelberg College, where he earned a degree in religion in 1967.

Duncan serves on the Boards of Directors for the Missouri Hospital Association and the Voluntary Hospitals of America. He has been CEO of Freeman Health System since 1996.

The American Red Cross Greater Ozarks Chapter named Joan Moore as the new Armed Forces Emergency Services specialist. Moore will be responsible for familiarizing military families with Red Cross services available to them, such as sending emergency messages from home to the service member.

Family Pharmacy Home Medical Supply representatives Mary Palmer and Debbie Taylor attended the Spring MedTrade Conference in Las Vegas. The event provides an opportunity for home healthcare providers and manufacturers to unite and brainstorm to seek new solutions to old problems as well as to discover new industry products.

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