Rural Missouri health care isn’t just a crisis story. It’s also a comeback story

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As physicians who are proud citizens of our rural communities, we have the privilege of caring for friends, neighbors and multiple generations.

But the satisfaction of providing care to our communities turned to frustration when our hospitals in Boonville and Mexico abruptly shut down in 2020 and 2022 respectively, leaving the health care of our fellow citizens in limbo.

Our hospitals were two of 21 in Missouri that closed over the past ten years, putting Boonville and Mexico in the same predicament as Fulton, which also lost its community hospital in 2022.

It’s no secret that rural hospitals are struggling to survive across the country and when our hospitals closed, we were worried health care access for our communities would vanish and never return.

But something remarkable happened.

Within six months of the Boonville hospital closure, MU Health Care opened a temporary family medicine clinic in a building near the casino.

And that was just the beginning.

MU Health Care broke ground on a 14,000 square-foot multi-specialty clinic on Jackson Road in Boonville that opened in March 2023 featuring an urgent care with extended hours, primary care, imaging including a CT scanner, lab and therapy services. It’s the largest clinic outside of Columbia and Jefferson City and provides a new model of care—all in one location.

And while MU Health Care was ramping up in Boonville, it was also addressing the situation in Mexico where a similar hospital closure left the community with a health care gap.

When that hospital closed, MU Health Care coordinated with the community doctors to open a family medicine clinic and an expanded urgent care staffed with multiple providers, experienced nurses, radiology services and support staff capable of managing more than 100 patients in a single day with the ability to stabilize more serious emergencies before transporting them to Columbia.

For decades, that hospital struggled to recruit physicians. MU Health Care now rotates more than 20 providers through the Mexico facility, many of whom live in that community. Clinic nurses come from Audrain and surrounding counties, bringing years of experience, much of it in emergency care.

At the same time, Audrain County voters supported major upgrades to the local ambulance district—investments in equipment, training and resources. Working with MU Health Care emergency medicine physician Josh Stilley, paramedics now receive expert advice from MU Health Care doctors during transport. This is modern rural medicine: integrated, connected and responsive.

While the media is quick to report on the concerning state of rural health care, physician shortages and hospital closures, there is also a positive story to tell—one of resilience, innovation and MU Health Care’s commitment to rural communities.

As proud as we are to say we are physicians serving our communities of Boonville and Mexico, we are just as proud to say we are doctors at MU Health Care, where the commitment to saving and improving lives is playing out in a very tangible way right here in rural mid-Missouri.