Saint Francis Medical Center is proud to announce its acquisition of Immediate HealthCare in Cape Girardeau, effective January 1, 2010. Robb R. Hicks, MD, founded Immediate HealthCare in 1995 as the first urgent care center in Southeast Missouri. Located at 1702 N. Kingshighway St., Immediate HealthCare offers urgent care, primary care, occupational medicine and diagnostics. The purchase price was not disclosed.

"We welcome the opportunity to add this location and resources to the service Saint Francis offers to the region. We have enjoyed a collaborative relationship with Dr. Hicks and are pleased to work on this project with him," says Steven C. Bjelich, FACHE-D, President and Chief Executive Officer of Saint Francis Healthcare System. The site will be called Saint Francis Immediate Convenient Care and will continue to offer many of the same services currently offered.

"We have tremendous respect for Saint Francis," says Hicks, president of Immediate HealthCare. When we opened in 1995, our vision was to provide a level of urgent care that was available only in big cities such as St. Louis and Kansas City. Our patients' tremendous loyalty has brought that initial vision to fruition. In keeping with the tremendous loyalty we feel toward our patients, my wife, Pat, and I have a new vision today. It is to hand over this quickly growing medical practice, which includes an urgent care center, occupational medicine clinic and family practice, to an even larger health services provider that can continue to expand this office into a larger facility and help even more patients."

Pat Hicks, clinic administrator, will remain with the practice for several months to ease the transition for the staff. "Immediate HealthCare has had strong and steady growth in its history, and that growth is expected to continue. We do not anticipate the loss of any positions within Immediate HealthCare," says Mrs. Hicks.

"Saint Francis has created powerful partnerships with highly trained specialty physician practices to meet the special healthcare needs of residents throughout the five-state region. Saint Francis has a strong history of working collaboratively with physicians. We are always looking for new and better ways to partner with our doctors to improve both quality and access to care," says Bjelich.

"The Saint Francis systems and processes will benefit the practice in Cape Girardeau. The true beneficiaries of this partnership will be the patients," Bjelich says.