Lancer Gates, DO
The Missouri State Medical Association has named Lancer Gates, DO, hospitalist with Gates Hospitalists, its 2023-2024 president.
Dr. Gates earned his medical degree from A.T. Still University in Kirksville, MO, in 1996 and completed his internal medicine residency at Wilson Memorial Hospital in Johnson City, NY, in 1999. He holds board certifications in internal medicine from both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Osteopathic Board of Internal Medicine. For the latter, he also is a fellow.
Dr. Gates began his general medicine practice in 1999 at Lourdes Hospital in Vestal, NY, providing outpatient and inpatient care. In 2001, he moved back to Missouri to provide inpatient and outpatient care at the Boulware Medical Clinic in Liberty. His wife, Stacey, helped him incorporate Gates Hospitalists, which by 2002 he began providing hospitalist care for patients at North Kansas City Hospital. For the first year, he practiced alone 24/7, caring for patients while Stacey served as the practice manager. About a year later, his friend and medical school classmate, Rusty Bergman, DO, joined him, and together they continued to build the group. Nearly 21 years later the practice has grown to 11 board-certified physicians.
His goal as MSMA president is to grow and engage its membership, while preserving the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship.
A founding member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Physicians Association, he also has served on the charter committee of CENTRUS, a quality initiative including KCMPA, NKCH, AdventHealth and the University of Kansas Hospital. Today, he serves on the CENTRUS Health Payment Transformation Committee and is cochair of the CENTRUS Health Performance Improvement Subcommittee.
Dr. Gates also is a preceptor to nearly 20 third- and fourth-year medical students from Kansas City University for their yearly rotations in internal medicine.
A longtime public servant, he served on Missouri Governor Matt Blunt’s Health Care Stabilization Fund Feasibility Board from 2007-2010. He served on the Clay County Judicial Selection Committee from 2008-2013 and as an appointed member of the Clay County Public Health Department Board of Trustees from 2021-2023.
Dr. Gates is a champion of organized medicine. Shortly after arriving back to Missouri in 2001, he became active in the Kansas City Medical Society. He was awarded the KCMS Doctor of Distinction in 2007 and served as the KCMS president in 2014. He has been an active member of MSMA, serving as councilor, vice speaker and speaker of the house. He sits on the MSMA Legislative Affairs Committee and is chair of the MSMA Insurance Agency Board of Directors. Sitting on the Editorial Board of MSMA’s journal, Missouri Medicine, he represents hospitalist medicine. He is active in the Kansas City Regional Osteopathic Medical Association, serving as president in 2018-2019 and as an active member of the Missouri Association of Physicians and Surgeons. He was named the MAOPS Physician of the Year in 2008.