BLOOMINGTON -- OSF HealthCare's acquisition of Carle Clinic-Bloomington/Normal takes effect Sunday but representatives of both organizations said most patients should experience few changes.

"We're trying to make this as seamless as possible," said Dr. Les Mathers, chief medical officer of the multi-specialty clinic at 1701 E. College Ave.

Carle Clinic services, including Convenient Care, will close 5 p.m. Friday, said clinic director Russ Rodriguez. The clinic will reopen Monday as OSF Medical Group-College Avenue.

What patients will experience will be mostly the same staff, said Rodriguez, who remains director.

While both sides have declined to release the financial terms, they say the deal is advantageous to the clinic because it affiliates with a local hospital; to Urbana-based Carle Clinic Association because it sheds a clinic one hour away; and to OSF, which gains a clinic with experienced health care providers who treated 37,000 patients last year.

Twenty-eight doctors have remained with the clinic as it transitions to OSF and six have left: general and colorectal surgeon Darryl Fernandes, family medicine and urgent care specialist Allan Griffith and ear nose and throat specialist Willard Noyes to BroMenn Medical Group; pulmonologist Alan Ginzburg to Illinois Heart & Lung Associates, a BroMenn affiliate; orthopedic surgeon Robert Seidl to full-time at Orthopedic & Sports Enhancement Center in Bloomington; and family medicine physician Charles Liang to Carle in Urbana.

Mathers - who will become OSF's senior vice president of physician recruiting - said recruiting to replace those doctors has begun.

In addition, staff turnover has been minimal, Rodriguez said. The clinic has 144 employees and nearly 40 medical professionals.

But Ginzburg said most Carle doctors were shocked when the Carle-OSF talks were announced last fall because of the doctors' longtime collaboration with BroMenn. Mathers responded that both OSF and BroMenn were approached about a possible acquisition.

Ginzburg decided to leave the clinic because of his collaboration with Illinois Heart & Lung and because he couldn't do critical care at both BroMenn Regional Medical Center in Normal and OSF St. Joseph Medical Center in Bloomington.

Despite his issues with the acquisition, Ginzburg believes most clinic patients will remain there, while continuing to use BroMenn as their hospital.

"I think the patients will be fine," Ginzburg said. "The physicians are excellent. My problem wasn't with medical care."

Dr. Charles Dennis, a Convenient Care physician who will replace Mathers as chief medical officer, anticipates few patients leaving. Patients who want their medical records sent to another physician may fill out a release form, Mathers said.

Clinic patients will continue to have access to BroMenn but the new ownership means that clinic physicians also will have privileges at St. Joseph, Rodriguez said. While the clinic will continue to accept Health Alliance Medical Plans, Humana Inc. is being added Sunday and negotiations are ongoing to add Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Rodriguez said.

"There will be more choice," said St. Joseph President and Chief Executive Officer Ken Natzke.

Affiliating with a Catholic health care institution will mean that clinic doctors can't perform two birth control procedures: vasectomies and tubal ligations, Natzke said.

"We're not a branch anymore," Dawn Simpsen, a clinic medical administrative assistant, said of transitioning from Carle to OSF. "It's wonderful."

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Open house

What: Open house for OSF Medical Group-College Avenue (formerly Carle Clinic-Bloomington/Normal)

When: 1 to 3 p.m. Sept. 27

Where: 1701 E. College Ave., Bloomington

Opportunities: Learn about health care providers and services, get blood pressure checked, turn in used needles to the pharmacy, donate non-perishable food for Home Sweet Home Ministries.

SOURCE: Christy McFarland, OSF St. Joseph Medical Center