HUMBOLDT — With a crowd of well-wishers looking on, Dr. Brian Neely ceremoniously cut a ribbon Monday afternoon to announce the opening of the Allen County Regional Clinic at 111 S. Ninth St., on the east side of the downtown square.
The clinic will open its doors to patients Monday. Neely will be available on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. JoAnna Curl, a certified physician’s assistant, will be at the clinic when Neely isn’t.
The clinic is operated by Allen County Regional Hospital, which has plans to open another clinic in Moran some time in early 2017.
Tony Thompson, chief executive officer of ACRH, said arrangements for the Humboldt clinic were an eye-opener, taking longer than expected. Consequently, Thompson added, he didn’t want to make specific predictions for the Moran clinic. “It takes time to gets medical clearances” — including those for Medicare — and to have a building up to snuff to deal appropriately with patients.
Curl, née Bland, said she feels right at home in Humboldt and eventually Moran.
She graduated from Marmaton Valley High School in 2002 and attended Fort Scott Community College, where she was a member of its vocational agricultural meat judging team. Being involved in vo-ag led her to meet her eventual husband, Johnnie Curl, a student from southern Arkansas who was attracted to FSCC to be a bareback rider on its rodeo team. “He’s a union welder now,” Curl said.
After earning an associate’s degree from Fort Scott, she was graduated from Kansas State University and completed work on a master’s degree and physician’s assistant certification at Wichita State University. She worked in Chanute and Iola before accepting the position with the Allen County Regional Clinic here.
Dr. Neely has practiced at the Iola clinic since arriving in July 2015.
Throngs celebrate Humboldt clinic opening
