A message from the Board

Dosher Medical clinics: A winning strategy

By Sherri Marshall, Board Chair

When the Board of Trustees approved plans for the hospital to begin operating free-standing primary care clinics, the idea was to open two as a test and then decide whether and where to grow from there. The first ones-Southport in 2011 and Oak Island in 2012-proved highly popular.

Tom Siemers became the new president & CEO in 2012 and he and has new administration team put that modest plan on steroids, adding four clinics in 2014: Urgent Care, North Howe Street, Smithville Crossing, and Women's Health.

Part of this vision involved expansion from primary care only to include gynecology services at the Women's Health clinic as well as a staff surgeon. The latter occurred in 2015 when Dosher opened the General Surgery, Long Beach Road, and Bald Head Island clinics.

The jewel in the plan was development of Dosher Wellness Center, which saw the Dosher physicians from Long Beach Road relocate to this new, 26,000-square-foot facility in 2016.

Counting Dosher Medical Plaza, which opened in 2008 and is home to outpatient diagnostics, laboratory services, and the Urgent Care clinic, Dosher now operates 10 clinics. Each of these is located in the primary service area of Smithville Township and surrounding communities.

The clinics are on a pace of more than 31,000 patient visits this fiscal year. All the Dosher Medical clinics accept new patients and participate in most insurance and managed care plans.

And now this year, Dosher welcomes Dr. Alex Newsom (right) as the second provider at Dosher Medical-North Howe Street. He is a board-certified internal medicine physician who joins Dosher in July from Cheraw, S.C., where he worked for McLeod Health.

Reflecting on the clinics strategy, it's one of the best things Dosher has done for the people of Smithville Township and visitors the past decade. You can read more about them at Dosher.org/Clinics. -Sherri Marshall, Chair, Dosher Memorial Hospital Board of Trustees