Alabama family care physician cares for his patients and those across the country

Dr. Steven Furr is a family care physician and advocate, focused on improving health outcomes across the state and nation

Dr. Steven Furr at his Family Medical Clinic of Jackson. Photo by Mike Kittrell.

Steven P. Furr, MD, FAAFP, began college at the University of South Alabama (USA) as a history major. Though he loved history and thought he’d go on to teach, during his sophomore year, he began considering other ways he could work directly with people to make a difference in their lives.

“Over the next year or two, I started thinking about medicine, and during that period of time, they were actually building a new medical school at USA,” Furr says. Instead of continuing with history coursework, he opted to take science courses including comparative anatomy, which he discovered that he loved. “I decided that medicine was where I could make the biggest impact,” Furr says.

During his time at the USA College of Medicine and subsequent residency at the University of Alabama Huntsville Family Practice Program, Furr enjoyed all aspects of family medicine — particularly preventative care.

He also knew that he would prefer to practice in a rural area.

“My dad was a Methodist minister, so we moved around a lot, but we did grow up for five years in a small town called Clopton, Alabama,” says Furr. “I saw the difference that family doctors made in the community, both in leadership and helping take care of people’s needs that may not be met otherwise.”

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That’s exactly what he and the team at the Family Medical Clinic of Jackson, the practice he co-founded, have been doing for 40 years. The clinic also admits patients to the hospital and provides care to residents in the local nursing home, where Furr serves as medical director.

He recently finished a year as chief of staff at Jackson Medical Center. For 25 years, the Family Medical Clinic of Jackson provided obstetric services.

“We’ve treated everyone from newborns to adults,” says Furr.

To him, being able to follow people in their care over the years is the real appeal of family medicine. “You hear a lot about people in medicine burning out with all the stresses and hardships that are there, but I think the biggest thing that makes our practice enjoyable is the long-term relationship with the patients, as well as the excellent nurses and administrators who are a joy to work with,” says Furr.

“The unique thing about family medicine is that by increasing this specialty in any area, and by increasing the number of physicians in that area, you could actually improve outcomes and lower costs at the same time,” says Dr. Steven Furr. Photo by Mike Kittrell.

Patient-centered care is what makes family practice unique, he notes. “We’re not focused on an age group or a disease. We’re really focused on the person and trying to do all we can to make their life meaningful, happy and healthy.”

Furr recently completed a term as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), which represents 130,000 physicians and medical students across the nation. Currently, he is involved as board chair, running meetings and helping to make decisions.

“The purpose of associations like this is to advocate for their members, but I think what makes the AAFP unique is that when we’re advocating for our member physicians, it’s also beneficial to the patients,” says Furr. “It’s really exciting when we go to Congress and advocate. We feel like we’re not just doing it on a personal level, but we’re doing it for the health of America.”

This benefit is especially impactful when it comes to rural health care because of the preventative care provided by family practices.

“The unique thing about family medicine is that by increasing this specialty in any area, and by increasing the number of physicians in that area, you could actually improve outcomes and lower costs at the same time,” Furr says.

“We’re not just about treating diabetes and hypertension after they have it, but our goal is to keep them from losing that leg they might have lost to their diabetes or, if there’s severe hypertension, controlling that so they don’t have renal failure and need to undergo dialysis,” he says.

Rural America is facing difficult times when it comes to health care accessibility. Furr cites younger people leaving for urban areas and not coming back, older people not staying around when they retire and rural hospitals closing as reasons contributing to this struggle.

“I don’t think people realize what happens when you lose your rural hospital,” says Furr. “Often the medical providers go, too, and you have a hard time recruiting doctors because, often, the hospital helps with that.” Without a hospital, a community loses access to emergency room and ambulance services that can’t afford to stay. If a person is having a stroke or heart attack, instead of getting care quickly, they may have to wait, resulting in loss of life for something that could have otherwise been taken care of locally.

The AAFP is working to make rural health care more attractive to physicians. On the state level, the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians has advocated for a state income tax refund for doctors who come to a rural area and stay at least five years. Gov. Kay Ivey’s policy office has developed an incentive that repays loans — up to $50,000 a year for three years — for physicians that practice in designated rural areas.

Another area of focus for the association has been supporting funding for teaching health centers. “We’ve found that a resident usually tends to practice within 50 or 100 miles of the area where they train,” says Furr. By locating training sites in rural areas, the hope is that physicians will be more likely to stay in the surrounding communities. Congress has been funding these teaching centers on a year-to-year basis, and the AAFP has made efforts to secure continual funding for multiple years to make sure they are stable.

Furr is also a trustee of USA, having served as chair of the board of trustees in the past. He notes that it’s unusual for a university to have a medical school and hospital, including a children’s hospital and cancer center, associated with it.

“Being able to participate in decisions and seeing how a large tertiary care center operates, as well as watching the university grow, has been very rewarding.”

In the past, Furr has taught medical students and residents from the university at his office, but he has taken a pause from that to accommodate his work with the AAFP. As last year’s board president, he was on the road more than 150 days out of the year.

Furr also has served in leadership positions with the Alabama Academy of Family Physicians, the Medical Association of the State of Alabama, the State Board of Medical Examiners and the State Board of Health.

What makes it worth his time? Each leadership situation has taught him something new about a truly multifaceted profession, he says. “I’ve learned things about medicine, the practice of medicine and taking care of patients that have made me a better doctor — and along with that, maybe a better person, also.”

Kathleen Farrell and Mike Kittrell are Mobile-based freelance contributors to Business Alabama.

This article appears in the January 2025 issue of Business Alabama.

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