Weems Welcomes New Doctor Beginning Nov. 30

Weems Memorial Hospital, Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare (TMH) and Alliant have partnered to bring a new primary care physician to Franklin County beginning Monday, November 30.

David Newton, MD, a family medicine physician from Montana with a background in rural medical care, will lead the new outpatient primary care practice at Weems Medical Clinic in Apalachicola and Weems Medical Clinic in Carrabelle. Dr. Newton’s practice, TMH Physician Partners, will launch in tandem with an expansion of inpatient services soon to become available at Weems Memorial Hospital.

“The arrival of Dr. Newton will greatly increase our capacity to care for our neighbors. We’re excited to welcome a medical leader who will be not only improving our access and caring for us with his extensive knowledge of rural medicine, but also living amongst the community by making Apalachicola his home,” said David Walker Weems CEO.

According to Walker, the Weems, TMH and Alliant partnership will provide a family physician presence to the community that will allow for a continuation of care from hospital visits and follow-up appointments to yearly checkups.

The primary care practice announcement is a direct result of the ongoing partnership between Weems Memorial Hospital and TMH, a relationship that became more formal recently when the Franklin County Commission signed an agreement with Kentucky-based Alliant Management to handle day to day operations in collaboration with Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare. The three-year management deal with Alliant Management Services, will make Alliant responsible for financial, operational, and clinical oversight for Weems.

Additionally, the administrative agreement will  provide Weems the purchasing power to lower supply costs between 10 to 15 percent for the 25-bed hospital.

According to Walker,  Weems will be able to use Alliant’s purchasing contract for a new inpatient and emergency department telemetry system that will allow remote patient monitoring for early detection of an ambulatory patient’s changing condition.

“We are optimistic that this partnership will result in Weems being able to provide state-of-the-art affordable healthcare to Franklin County residents without the need for our community to travel long distances,” Walker said.