The St. James Chamber of Commerce would like to congratulate Forest City Family Practice for being selected “May Business of the Month”.  Dr. Hugh Schuetz, D.O., ACOFP and Dr. Rachelle Gorrell, D.O., ACOFP are the attending physicians.

In 1996, Dr. Schuetz joined the staff at the Forest City Medical Clinic, which was then located on the Outer Road and owned by the Phelps County Regional Medical Center.  The clinic was moved into the current facility in May of 1999, and Dr. Schuetz purchased the medical practice on January 1, 2001, and changed the named to Forest City Family Practice.

Between 1996 and 1998, Dr. Gorrell, in her 3rd and 4th years of medical school, spent time rotating through medical and surgical departments  at PCRMC, other specialty practices in the area, along with rotations at FCFP at the clinic under the direction of Dr. Schuetz, who is Director of Medical Education.  Dr. Gorrell did her residency in family practice at Witchita, Kansas, and returned to join Dr. Schuetz at the clinic in August of 2001.

The Family Practice is also considered a Rural Health Clinic with Medicare certification.  It accepts all insurances and no insurance, and much of the practice is Medicare and Medicaid related.  One of the requirements to be certified is that the clinic must have at least one Nurse Practitioner 50 percent of the time. 

The clinic currently has two full-time Nurse Practitioners on staff.  Carol Teague, RN CS FNP, has been with the clinic for eleven years and Chris Durbin, RN CS FNP, has been with the clinic for six years.

The clinic has six nurses on staff and six employees in business administration, including Dr. Schuetz's wife, Debbie.      

Dr. Schuetz was raised in the Kirksville, Missouri area where his father was a physician in Kirksville.  His brother also became a physician and is currently practicing in the state of Washington.

Dr. Gorrell is originally from the state of Kansas, but settled in the St. James area after meeting her husband, Robert, who is from Redbird.  The couple have two children, Connor, age 7 and Logan, age 4.  

Both physicians attended A. T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine.