Family Healthcare now has three generations of doctors

Jul. 15—Dr. Evan Muscari — a standout athlete in Wyoming County sports, graduate of Concord University and the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine — has joined Family Healthcare Associates. He is the third generation of family medicine specialists in the practice.

On the heels of three years of general practice, Evan was in his first week of seeing patients in Family Healthcare's Pineville office last week and joked easily with his dad (Dr. Mike Muscari), his uncle (Dr. Sam Muscari Jr.) and his grandfather (Dr. Sam Muscari Sr.).

"They think they're my bosses," he said with a laugh.

"I love it," he said of practicing medicine with his family. "It's a dream come true. I've dreamed of this since I was five or six years old."

There was never any pressure to go into medicine, he said, it was always his choice.

"They just want me to be happy," Evan said.

Dr. Sam Muscari Sr., known affectionately as "Doc," grew up in Marietta, Ohio. The "baby" of five children, he is the last surviving family member.

At the age of 12, his father came to this country from Italy in 1914 through Ellis Island. He and Doc's mother, Geraldine, met in college. She was a native West Virginian.

"She basically taught him to speak English," he said of his parents.

Doc notes that he grew up around the Great Depression and World War II.

"We were poor," he said. "The most important thing in my family was education and we had music — music and education. We all played instruments."

He plays the piano, violin and cello.

Doc credits his father for his work ethic and his mother, who taught herself Russian, with his love for education.

Initially, Doc went into history and political science, seriously considering becoming a lawyer. He also had enough courses to earn a teaching certificate, just in case that plan didn't work out.

"You've got to have a back-up plan. Kids today don't think that way, but I think it is important to have something to fall back on."

Then, a brother went into medicine.

"I thought if he can be a doctor, I can too," he said with a laugh during a previous interview. "After I got into it, I loved it."

Doc came to the coalfields of southern West Virginia in 1963 to look over the practice of Dr. Paul Sharp after his death.

"I came from Cross Lanes. I came down on a Sunday and was working here the next day," he recalled.

"I was dead broke," he said with a laugh.

"I was the coal company doctor and I had a private practice," he said of his early days in Wyoming County.

"Things were tough back then and this was a ready-made practice. I've been here ever since."

At the time, he had a small office in the Maben Company Store. Then in 1965, he opened his own practice in downtown Mullens.

In those days, doctors also made frequent house calls.

Sam Jr. recalled one winter's night when he accompanied his dad on a house call. They got stuck on the side of a mountain in the snow.

"We walked the rest of the way up the mountain," Sam Jr. recalled. "I carried his bag. He carried his table."

By the time they returned, heat from the vehicle had melted enough of the snow so they could get off the mountain.

Sometimes, he spent all night making house calls, Doc said.

"The boys went with me a lot of the time," Doc said.

That young coal company doctor is now nearing 90 years young and heads a thriving practice that includes six clinics in four counties.

He is also the patriarch of the large Muscari family that includes two sons, four grandsons, and nine great grandchildren — only one of which is female. Both sons and four grandsons are in medicine. His great granddaughter, Amelia, also plans to go into medicine, he said.

"The Muscaris are going to be around here for a long time," he said with a laugh.

Family Healthcare Associates has offices in Mullens, Oceana and Pineville in Wyoming County, as well as Man in Logan County, Gilbert in Mingo County, and Welch in McDowell County.

In 1986, the three elder Muscaris — Sam Sr., Sam Jr., and Mike — along with Dr. Tony Flaim founded Family Healthcare Associates, which now has thousands of patients across southern West Virginia.

A family-owned, family operated business, Mike emphasized.

"It's a family business. Tony is family from all the way back," Mike emphasized.

Tony and Sam Jr. attended the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine together, graduating in 1981 — the school's fourth class of graduates.

Mike graduated from the school three years later, with the seventh class of graduates and now, appointed by Gov. Jim Justice, serves on the school's Board of Governors.

Doc is one of the founders of the school, charged with providing health care for people across the state.

Mike's oldest son, Kyle, practices at Access Health in Beckley.

Sam's sons are also in medicine. Benjamin is a Doctor of Pharmacy in Princeton and sometimes works in Pineville, and Nicholas is also a graduate of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic Medicine and practices in Princeton.

One of the biggest challenges the practice faced was the Covid-19 pandemic.

"I had to ask employees to do things we never thought," Mike said.

They saw patients outside, no matter the weather.

"Our group was always on the cutting edge of testing and vaccines," he emphasized, adding they adapted to the ever-changing pandemic circumstances in order to take care of their patients.

Employees are all hired locally.

"We're the main players in the three cities (of Wyoming County). We must be doing something right," Doc noted.

"We don't plan on going anywhere. We live in the best place in the world right here."