The History of Holy Family Medical
It all began when Bishop Thomas Olmsted offered his blessing and support for the formation of Holy Family Medical (HFM). Dr. Antonio Barba, Jr. and Dr. Ronald Ferris co-founded and established Holy Family Medical Associates (HFMA) on August 15, 2000. Dr. Barba had been practicing as an obstetrician/gynecologist for many years and was planning to move his practice from the Via Christi – St. Francis Campus to the Via Christi – St. Joseph Campus. Dr. Ferris had just completed his family medicine residency at the Via Christi Family Medicine Residency. The timing was perfect, and by the grace of God, the two physicians came together to open a new office near the Via Christi – St. Joseph Campus.
The new office opened on August 15, 2000, which also marked the Feast of the Assumption of Mary. This feast commemorates the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into Heaven at the end of her earthly life.
Dr. Barba retired at the end of 2006 after delivering thousands of babies during his career. Dr. Ferris continued with HFMA, and on February 2, 2011, an open house was held to celebrate the move to a new office on Hillside. That day also marked another important feast—the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple.
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Letter from Bishop Olmsted |
Since opening its doors, Holy Family Medical has grown and adapted to keep pace with the needs of the community it serves. Its founding organization, Holy Family Medical Associates, founded as a for-profit Catholic physician’s clinic in 2000. When faced with the changing needs and diversity of its patients, they realized that to sustain the mission of the clinic it would need to transition to a non-profit organization to more adequately serve those in need while also fulfilling their mission. The new, non-profit corporation was established in 2019 as Holy Family Medical, Inc.
The name Holy Family Medical Inc. seems fitting as it strives to provide care to families and individuals of different walks of life. The clinic comes in a timely manner to fill a void in the care of all patients, providing them with a superior (Christ centered) health care and respecting every human life from conception to natural death. The clinic provides medical care across the entire lifespan-prenatal, pediatric, women’s, men’s, and geriatric care. Besides addressing the health of adult and pediatric patients, the clinic provides the much-needed natural family planning and fertility care.
The founders wisely designated the clinic as a non-profit with a 501(c)(3) status so their primary focus will be the care of their patients who seek their help.
Holy Family Medical is a non-profit community clinic committed to providing compassionate, quality medical care to all, especially to the uninsured, under-served and low-income individuals and families of Wichita KS and surrounding areas, without regard to age, race, religious affiliation, or nationality.