Boiling Spring Lakes Family Medicine History

 

Boiling Spring Lakes Family Medicine was established in September 2004 when Domenic Palagruto, DO left group practice to establish an independent Family Practice in Boiling Spring Lakes. With a motto of “Our specialty is caring for your family,” the practice expanded rapidly - providing care for everyone from newborns to geriatric patients in Boiling Spring Lakes and the surrounding communities. The need for primary care was such that in 2006 a second physician, Rebecca Brown, MD joined Dr. Palagruto.  They soon outgrew the building they were renting from Dosher Hospital, even with the addition of a modular trailer, (decorated tastefully with artificial plastic flowers) at the site. The real solution came with the addition of a third physician, Karen Wood, MD and the purchase of the empty church building on highway 87.

​

The transformation from church to medical office was a labor of love, involving all of the physicians and staff with many of their friends and family pitching in. Construction started in 2006, during the height of the construction boom and the most expensive time to build in the history of eastern North Carolina. Thankfully, the contractor, Jeff Ward, was an honest and understanding man who allowed the young physicians to defray some of the costs by doing the demolition as well as some of the painting and construction themselves. Curious patients stopping by to check out the construction site were surprised to see Dr. Brown out painting bricks, office manager Dee Lewis wielding her rubber mallet, and Dr. Wood, Dr. Palagruto and their sons, Jack and Cameron, tearing out drywall.

​

The new office opened in 2007 and quickly became a busy practice providing care and support to the surrounding community. Boiling Spring Lakes Family Medicine maintains privileges at both Dosher and Novant community hospitals, cares for patients at the local nursing and assisted care facilities, works closely with the local hospice care agencies, provides volunteer medical support to the local school athletics and strongly supports the New Hope Clinic through volunteer care and management.

​

After Dr. Brown departed to become a hospitalist in 2010, Eileen Ceponis, FNP joined BSL Family medicine and allowed for the continued provision of care to the surrounding community. When EIleen retired in 2017, BSL Family Medicine was fortunate enough to hire Shauna Ruoff, a newly minted FNP whose compassionate care and clinical acumen have made her a patient favorite. Shauna moved on to work in hospice care closer to her home in Wilmington. Following several transition months  actively looking for the right person we were then blessed to find Meredith Lewis, a nurse practitioner who had recently moved to eastern NC from Tennessee. Meredith shares our passion for quality patient care and has fit seamlessly into the BSLFM family.