The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
-by Judy Swanson, The Quill
Family Rural Health
Monica Mueller Crim was raised in La Harpe and graduated from La Harpe High School. She attended undergraduate college at North East Missouri State (now Truman College) in Kirksville, Missouri. She received her masters as Nurse Practitioner at University of Illinois in Peoria, and her second masters in Nursing Education at the University of Iowa.
She worked at McDonough District Hospital and Missouri OB from 1989-1997.
Monica started working at the clinic in La Harpe in 1997. She bought the practice in October on 2002. She works at the clinic as well as in prenatal under Dr. Eckman of MDH in Macomb.
In her practice she works with patients from birth to old age. She takes Medicare and public aid patients. Since they are a rural health clinic they can take these patients. The clinic serves an area within a 20 mile radius of La Harpe.
They do physicals for sports, DOT, and individuals. They have a resource lab at the clinic and can have next day results. They have a pharmacy service.
She has a CPR training mannequin and does classes for the nursing home, and works with the fire department.
She will be having a CPR clinic April 7, 2005, starting at 9:00 a.m. Call the office for more details at 217/659-3944.
Monica also does chronic illness maintenance and preventive care. She is working with the health department for dental care for Medicare and Medicaid patient. She will make house calls for routine maintenance visits. They can do EKG's, simple surgeries like lesions and remove stitches. The clinic handles on an average of 20-25 patients a day.
She also has U. of I. nurse practitioner students at the clinic. She also sees residents in the nursing home when the doctor is not available.
Monica is a member of Western Illinois Rural Health Association, Illinois Society of Advance Practitioner Nurses, and Illinois Nurses Association. She has been asked to write a paper on, "How Nurse Practitioners Can Own Their Own Clinics", for Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs at W.I.U.
Besides all that, Monica and her husband, Brandon, have been married for 15 years. They have two children, Jared (10) and Tori (8). They will be moving to La Harpe from Terre Haute this spring and will be living in her late grandfather's (B.I. Mueller) house, and is excited about that.
The clinic hours are from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday-Friday, Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to noon.