6 minute read
The Art of (Medical) Tradition
Leawood practice merges with AdventHealth to add resources and keep moving forward.
By Jackie Hostetler
Photos by Sarah Reeves
Author Henry James once said, “Tradition is kept alive only by something being added to it.” The physicians and staff of AdventHealth Medical Group Primary Care at College Boulevard not only understand this sentiment well but have built their careers around it.
Tradition has always been important to this medical practice, and the recent addition that has kept this team—and their traditions— energized and moving forward has come in the form of a merger with AdventHealth.
The medical group, formerly known as Leawood Family Care, successfully merged with the medical corporation AdventHealthcare in June 2023. Like all long-standing traditions, it took decades for the physicians and staff to build and maintain the strong values and core principles the business was based around.
Forward Thinking Practice
Louis Christifano, DO, currently practices within AdventHealth Medical Group Primary Care at College Boulevard. Prior to the merger, Christifano and his colleagues had a long history of medical service within the Johnson County area.
Christifano himself has been practicing medicine for more than 30 years. For the first several years of his career, he worked within a hospital-owned practice. Christifano and several colleagues went on to open a privately owned clinic in 2002—Leawood Family Care.
Prior to the current era of round-the-clock walk-in services, Leawood Family Care introduced one of the first walk-in clinics in the area. In addition to the regular Monday through Friday hours, the group incorporated the walk-in clinic, serving patients on a first-come, first-serve basis after hours and on weekends. The walk-in clinic has always been staffed with two providers. In addition to that, at least one, if not both, are physicians.
“We found a solution in terms of the old problem—I’m sick and I don’t want to wait two weeks to see a doctor. Or it’s Saturday morning and my 2-year-old is crying with an ear infection, but I don’t want to go to the emergency room for $500,” says Christifano. “Patients can utilize the walk-in service and be seen by the doctors they know. It’s always been good for our patients and for our community.”
The walk-in service was just one of a number of services that allowed Leawood Family Care to become a leader in the local medical field. As the practice grew, so did the need for resources.
Merger Talks
As 2020 approached, the providers began discussions around structural and technological updates. Christifano was fortunate to have a long-standing professional relationship with Scott Woods, an AdventHealth Care administrator, who brought it to his attention that Advent was seeking to lease office space to general practice physicians. It made perfect sense for the medical group to lease space in the updated facility rather than dump funds into their current space. Though Christifano spearheaded some of those original discussions, he and the other physicians worked as team within the practice at the time.
“Effective December 2020, we made the move,” says Christifano. “At that point we were still Leawood Family Care. We were just renting space in AdventHealth’s new building. But over time, we started to have some internal discussions.”
Challenges from the effects of COVID, coupled with partners looking toward retirement in the coming years, led Leawood Family Care into deeper discussions around a possible merger.
“We decided that over the next few years, we were likely going to be dealing with some retiring staff and, in turn, recruiting younger doctors. The number of owners was going to be shrinking. We thought that somewhere within the next 5 to 10 years, it would be a good time for us to find a parent hospital to partner up with,” says Christifano. “We wanted to continue to do the things that we had been doing, but we knew we could get some outside resources to help us with things like recruiting, human resources, and technology. We were leasing space in their building anyway, so we decided that it would be the logical entity.”
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF ADVENTHEALTH …
“I get to work with a lot of different clinics and medical groups and, Leawood Family Care, now the AdventHealth Primary Care at College Boulevard team, has just been one of the best to work with. The patients who have been going there for years have been going there for a reason. The team has been incredible. They’ve even helped to define some best practices for other groups we’ve worked with. It’s been a really good partnership. They’ve made us better.”
—MORGAN SHANDLER, Regional director of consumer experience for AdventHealth
In conjunction with Christifano, the three other owners of Leawood Family Care at the time of the transition—Drs. Mary Ann Campbell, John Horton, and Lisa Winkler—made the decision to merge with AdventHealth.
Since the acquisition, Campbell has retired and two additional doctors have joined the team: Connor Gill, DO, and Claudia Wendell, MD.
The benefits of the merger have been numerous, including access to the most advanced technology for both staff and patients and support in billing and staffing. Christifano is pleased with the commitment to maintain the high quality of staff and services provided. The walk-in service and the cohesion of the team continue to be priorities.
“One of the reasons that we wanted to do the merger was to keep our staff whole. We have more than 10 people who have worked for us for more than 25 years. Most of the other 20 employees have worked with us for more than 15 years. Our staff loyalty has been really impressive. And our patients have enjoyed that, as we have,” says Christifano. “Our medical assistants, our nurses, our X-ray techs, our front office staff have not changed. We insisted on that.”
When asked about the team’s hope for the future, Christifano’s response is simple.
“Our goal for the future is to do exactly what we’ve always done. Except better.”
For More
AdventHealth Medical Group Primary Care at College Boulevard
7025 College Boulevard, Suite 200 Overland Park, KS 66211 913-338-4515
