Mercy Southeast and Southeast Missouri State University signed a five-year extension on its collaborative partnership in which Mercy Southeast provides orthopedic and sports medicine services for the university’s NCAA Division I athletics program. Mercy Southeast also will care for the university’s intramural and club sport participants as well as performing arts students.

Mercy Southeast Orthopedic and Sports Medicine provides primary medical and orthopedic care, physical therapy and athletic training services to student-athletes. Dr. Andrew Lawrence, Dr. Brian Sutterer and Dr. Michelle Tedrowe will continue to serve as the official team physicians of Southeast Missouri State University.

“We are excited to continue our partnership with Southeast Missouri State University,” said Jason Emmenderfer, executive director for specialty services at Mercy Southeast. “Over the last five years, we’ve enjoyed working with their student-athletes and performers, providing high-quality care to help improve their physical performances. This partnership with the university has been a game changer for both our physicians and the students.”

Services provided by Mercy Southeast for Southeast Missouri State University include:

• Eight full-time certified athletic trainers with the athletic program and one full-time certified athletic trainer to work with performing arts, intramural and club sports
• Game-day coverage for all athletic programs
• On-campus clinic availability by both primary care and orthopedic physicians for student-athletes and performing arts students in the university’s athletic training facility

Mercy Southeast and Southeast Missouri State University began this partnership in 2019, marking the first time the university contracted with an outside group for comprehensive medical services for performers and student-athletes.

Mercy, one of the 20 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized care and one of the nation’s largest and highest performing Accountable Care Organizations in quality and cost. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including 50 acute care and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has over 1,000 physician practice locations and outpatient facilities, more than 5,000 physicians and advanced practitioners and more than 50,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, 

Mississippi and Texas. In fiscal year 2023 alone, Mercy provided more than half a billion dollars of free care and other community benefits, including traditional charity care and unreimbursed Medicaid.

For interested students, now is the perfect time to learn more about SEMO! Apply today with no application fee. Eligible new Missouri undergraduate students with a 2.75 high school GPA and who are eligible for Pell Grants won’t pay any tuition or fees at Southeast Missouri State with the Will To Do Award. SEMO also offers one tuition rate nationwide for domestic students. Apply at semo.edu/apply. Prospective students can explore SEMO’s opportunities by scheduling a campus visit. For more information or to visit campus, visit the Southeast Admissions page or admissions@semo.edu.

Author: Kate Shupert, Sr. Media Relations and Communications Specialist at Mercy Southeast