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We have a little secret we want to share with you, when it comes to your health, traditional health insurance payment options within the classic model of primary care, pay for procedures instead of results. In fact, in many ways, we are penalized financially for spending more time with patients, which is what is necessary to provide thoughtful, whole-person, preventative care. As traditional primary care doctors, we weren’t satisfied with that model of care, and that’s the number one reason we chose to switch to the concierge medicine model of care instead.
We feel that taking the time for increased one-on-one communication with our patients creates a closer relationship and allows us to spend more time addressing your medical concerns and providing preventative advice. Overall, this leads to better long term health for our patients, and indeed a recent national survey of concierge patients showed that 98% of them stated that communication with their primary care doctors has been enhanced through concierge medicine.
Our concierge model allows us to be far more accessible in person because the office visits last much longer, the typical visit is at least 30 minutes, as compared to the 10 minutes of a standard medical appointment. Simply put, the concierge model allows us to keep our practice smaller, with a lesser number of patients, so we get to know our patients in a far more intimate way. There’s no sense of being rushed, and you can get all of your questions answered, and we can provide more in-depth advice to prevent disease.
As your primary care doctor, we need time to explain your treatment regimen or perhaps even to explain when no treatment is necessary. When we have the time to really be with you, we can take everything into account based on the way you are communicating. Are you looking a bit tired, or totally exhausted? Do you just have a little dry cough or is it a pneumonia rattle? Are you in pain, do you sound weak when you speak? All of these can actually be the difference between life and death, sickness and health, and we want to be able to take the time to truly communicate with you to find out.
As doctors, we feel that the luxury of time is critical in preventative care, and we rarely had that time in our standard practice. When you have the time to do preventative services properly, you can save lives, and that’s why we became doctors to begin with! It’s also important to us to establish one-on-one relationships with our patients, as that establishes trust and enhances care. After all, when we get to know you better, we can more easily detect when something may be wrong physically.
Communication Convenience
Nowadays we are all accustomed to instant gratification when it comes to communicating. In most cases, a person can send out a quick text or email or simply ask Siri to give the info needed. But, quite frankly, traditional medical practices haven’t really kept up with that level of communication. However, we knew people wanted that same convenience in their medical care. That’s why our concierge practice offers you a number of different ways to communicate with us. You can email us with non-urgent concerns, text us if you need a referral to a specialist and we even offer telemedicine, which allows us to see you face-to-face when you are sick with something simple like a cold, but don’t want to leave the house. In fact, we even make house calls if you need it.
Here in Southwest Florida we have a situation that many other areas of the country don’t have, and that’s “season.” As a seasonal resident or “snowbird,” you live here for several months of the year and in a Northern state for the rest of the year. So what is there to do about having a primary care physician? Because we can offer telemedicine services, we can actually be your primary care physician no matter what time of the year it is, and no matter where you are located. Now that’s convenient care! This means you can reach us when you really need us!
We feel that concierge medicine restores the close doctor-patient relationship that both doctors and patients seek. And our patients agree. Because we see fewer patients on a daily basis, there are fewer opportunities for the communication chain to be broken. Many of our patients have told us that they are highly satisfied with our level of communication and feel that their concerns have been heard and properly addressed. More importantly, we’ve been able to pinpoint issues patients have been dealing with for years and to diagnose and treat what other physicians have missed.
Here’s to a healthy and happy 2020! Do the best thing you can do for your health and make an appointment to learn more about our concierge medical services today! Your health and well-being are our biggest priority! Call (239) 500-6363 for an appointment.
