Surepoint Family Medicine closes permanently, leaving patients and employees high-and-dry.

Surepoint Emergency Center in Stephenville remains open, but the family medicine clinic was abruptly closed on Monday.

By SARA VANDEN BERGE

Shortly after the last patient of the day walked out of Stephenville’s Surepoint Family Medicine on Monday, the staff was told to pack up their belongings and hit the road.

The clinic was closing permanently - and immediately.

Eric Daniel, the company’s regional ER director, and Dr. Dana Wingate, chief medical officer, delivered the news in person after driving in from Surepoint’s corporate office in Mansfield late Monday afternoon, a person familiar with the situation told Beneath the Surface News.

Neither the employees or its several hundred patients were given any advance notice of the closure. Some patients have reported receiving an email from Michelle Newsom, president of Surepoint Medical Center, on Tuesday instructing them to seek medical care elsewhere.

In fact, the employees were given a choice to either sign a confidentiality and non-disparagement agreement within seven days to receive a two-week compensation and their paid time off, or refuse and get nothing.

So, as you might imagine, no one is talking.

But one former Surepoint employee said the company’s decision to abruptly close the clinic is not simply inconvenient for its patients, but dangerous.

“All of the patients are now left without medical care,” the person said. “I understand there was lab work done on Monday and now there is no way for those patients to get the results.

“And what about the medications that need to be refilled?"

A call to the clinic for comment was answered with a recording that says the clinic is closed permanently and instructs patients seeking medical records to call 877-437-7873.

The clinic’s Facebook page and website have been deleted and a note has been placed on the clinic’s front door announcing the closure.

“It’s just insane,” said a patient who asked not to be named. “I have no idea what to do and I haven’t received anything from the company about the closure, at least not yet. Maybe it’s in the mail.”

But that former employee has serious doubts that Surepoint’s patients will ever receive an explanation.

“This just shows the company doesn’t care about the community or its patients. All they care about is the bottom dollar.

“It’s sad.”