Perry Medical Clinic has ribbon cutting
By Woodrow Polston
PERRY, Mo.—The Perry Medical Clinic located at 1223 East Main Street hosted a ribbon-cutting ceremony last Friday to celebrate the reestablishment of local medical services.
The facility is being operated by Dr. Steve Taylor, who has been serving the Mexico, Mo., area and has 45 years’ experience as a family practitioner. During the event, Ziva Medical Chief Operating Officer Angie Schierer was there to discuss plans for re-opening the Mexico hospital. She said that outpatient procedures would soon resume at the Mexico location.
“We are going to start with lab and radiology outpatient services,” said Schierer. “When the hospital closed, it lost its license. In order to obtain a new license, we have to go through with a certificate of need and meet all of the new codes. Having been closed for over a year, all the grandfathered codes expired. We will need to apply for a letter of intent to open as a hospital. After that, it may take three to six months to be granted approval. Beyond that, receiving the official licenses may take as many as 90 days. So, in the meantime, we are focusing on our clinics and outpatient services,” she added.
Employees of Ziva Medical have been working for months on repairs and updates at the hospital to bring it into compliance. Facility Manager Craig Schierer said that he is confident that they will be able to meet all the codes.
“I am confident that we will meet the necessary codes,” said Schierer. “The state is going to work with us on the items that need attention. We have to get everything drawn out, and cost estimates done. When the letter of intent is submitted, there has to be a dollar amount turned in as well. We have done a lot already, including having replaced windows and other projects,” he added.
After the controversial closing of the hospital in 2022, many area residents were forced to travel as far as Columbia for certain healthcare services. Schierer said that they are looking to hire more than 100 healthcare workers in anticipation of opening the hospital again.
“We are estimating that we need to hire a maximum of about 125 people when we become fully functional,” she said. “We aren’t bringing everything in the building back to life. It was at one time a 100-bed facility. We are looking at a small hospital, and there isn’t a lot of inpatient procedures done anymore. The Cancer Center is currently in discussion but has not been determined yet. We want to bring back specialists because we need them here. Even if it is on a limited schedule,” she added.
Schierer also mentioned that medical records have been kept in storage and any patients needing to obtain them may call 573-570-3500.