Right place, right time

Dr. Richard Jennett reflects on founding of JCMG

Dr. Richard Jennett, a founder of Jefferson City Medical Group, stands by a photo of the medical facility signed by many of his colleagues and co-workers.
Dr. Richard Jennett, a founder of Jefferson City Medical Group, stands by a photo of the medical facility signed by many of his colleagues and co-workers.

The evolution of Dr. Richard Jennett's career mirrors his work to build Jefferson City Medical Group (JCMG).

Jennett soon will retire after 30 years of involvement in the local health care community.

He founded Jefferson City Medical Group P.C. and JCMG Building LLC. Combined, these entities now constitute one of the largest privately held multi-specialty medical practices in the Midwest, with more than 100 providers in 28 medical and surgical specialties providing care to nearly 100,000 patients every year.

"The transition to HMOs in the 1990s, such as was done with the consolidated plan with state government, was the external force that helped propel JCMG," he said. "The shift from inpatient to outpatient care was huge. Years ago, if you got sick, you'd go to the hospital; but over time hospital costs rose tremendously. So the ability to treat or prevent illness increased greatly.

"JCMG filled a void. There was no organized outpatient care before we came. This way you could go to one place without having the burden of having to go to a hospital for treatment."

Jennett met his wife, Lana, during his time at the University of Nebraska College of Medicine, where she was working as a nurse on the oncology unit. Their introduction came when she paged an intern (Jennett) to help start an IV for a patient. She has worked alongside Jennett in some capacity throughout most of his tenure with JCMG.

After several years of teaching and research, he decided to pursue private practice closer to his wife's family in St.Louis. In 1989, Jennett joined other Jefferson City physicians, including Dr. Donald Miller, Dr. Harold Kanagawa and Dr. Charles Landsbaum, in a practice then known as Internal Medicine Inc.

After only a few years in Jefferson City, Jennett and his contemporaries recognized a need to provide more comprehensive medical care to the community and formed JCMG in 1993. Jennett served as its president from 1993-95 and 1999-2015.

"I was basically a lab rat kind of guy, working in academic medicine," he said. "Then I came here to set up a practice, but I didn't know I'd develop or lead such an organization. I was at the right place at the right time."

Jennett led the development of the JCMG Medical Building on West Stadium Boulevard. Dedicated in October 1998, the campus today encompasses more than 200,000 square feet and houses nearly 600 team members and clinical services, including a surgery center, imaging center, laboratory, 25 specialty practices, a cancer center and more.

Jennett noted physicians are trained to distinguish themselves individually, but once in practice, teamwork is most important.

"If you can get doctors to function as a team, it better serves the patient," he said. "I didn't have much training in business, but I realized doctors are sort of strong-willed, smart people and do things the way they want. I tried to develop a management style more collaborative. You can't achieve by telling people, 'Do what I say to do.' You must have a way where people feel comfortable to give input."

In addition to his roles as president and full-time gastroenterologist, Jennett has been involved with many other business, political and civic endeavors. Most notably, he is proud of his work to pass tort reform, which he said saved many physicians across the state from closing their doors due to the "skyrocketing cost of malpractice insurance."

"If you feel strongly about something and it's for the good of the public, you should stand up and say something about it," Jennett said.

"I'm always first to say Lana had to raise our family by herself, especially in the early years when I was functioning 24/7 to get things done. That puts a burden on the family," he continued. 

"I would do that again, but I couldn't have accomplished all this without Lana and my longtime nurse, Julie Branch. The answer many people give about retiring to spend more time with your family is the reason I'm retiring. Our parents are getting older; we're proud of our three daughters and want to do more with them."