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Marion will welcome a new physician in early July when Scott Akers is expected to join the medical staff at St. Luke Hospital, CEO Jeremy Ensey announced Tuesday.
“I feel very blessed for a search to go so smoothly and to find someone as quick as we did,” Ensey said.
Akers will fill a vacancy created when Paige Dodson left for a position in El Dorado on March 8.
While Akers has metropolitan experience and credentials, his small town roots in Syracuse and recent work at Stanton County Hospital in Johnson were a good fit with Marion, Ensey said.
“Growing up in Syracuse and already practicing in Johnson, he has a taste of and understands rural health care,” he said. “From our discussion, this is what he wants to do. He’s just very passionate about rural health care, and it showed in discussions with other staff.”
Akers earned a bachelor’s degree in molecular bioscience from Baker University and completed his medical degree at Kansas City University of Medicine and Bioscience. He completed a residency in family medicine at Via Christi in Wichita last year, and is certified through the American Board of Family Physicians.
Ensey said that while the hospital awaits Akers’ arrival, physician Tim McVay will work five days a week in the clinic. Nurse practitioner Rachel Wilson can provide emergency room coverage that allows McVay to keep the clinic flowing, he said.