It is time to start thinking about getting kids in for sports physicals! Please don’t wait until the last possible minute. Late fall tends to be a busy time in the clinic, so now is a good time to think about getting caught up on routine health maintenance for kids and adults. Many of us put important routine maintenance on hold during COVID. Give us a call if you aren’t sure what you may be due for!
Clinic Closures
Please mark your calenders! The clinic will be closed July 27th, 28th and 29th. I am very unlikely to have cellular access during these dates, so please contact me in advance for any routine needs. As usual, if you are unable to reach me for urgent or emergent needs, please do not hesitate to seek care at an outside facility as you see fit.
Fluffy stuff
The value of time: What do you find most valuable in your membership? We are pleased to offer an expanding list of transparent pricing on cash pay services for our memberships (in house procedure at no added cost, steep discounts on cash pay x-rays, cardiac monitors, home sleep studies, labs, and medications). More and more though, I am convinced that the real value in a Direct Primary Care clinic is the exceptional care which is only possible because of increased access and time with your physician. At DawnMD, I have time to dot every i and cross every t. Time is one of our most valuable commodities. If I can save a patient time by treating a straightforward problem via text or save them a visit to Spokane or Coeur D’Alene just by involving an e-consultant, then I have provided great value. If I can thoroughly evaluate and explain a problem, then the patient is less likely to be shuffled around from provider to provider or from one study to the next without fully understanding the plan. Continuity and trust are central to most medical issues, and the direct primary care model provides that. I am amazed every day at how much of a visit evolves in the time and space after the actual appointment. Folks can call to update me on an evolving problem or text for clarification about something we discussed. By giving people plenty of time to ask questions, they have more trust in me and the treatment plan, thereby improving compliance and reducing the likelihood that they will seek more dubious alternatives. The extra time also helps me in cases where I need a little more space to mull things over, or when I need the power of one of our best diagnostic tools - you guessed it: TIME.
Some highlights from this week relating to TIME:
A patient texted me early Monday morning asking to be seen for pink eye. Can I see you this morning? Yep! Would I be comfortable prescribing something right now based on a photo? Yep! Through ongoing text communication I saw this case through to resolution and the patient never had to drive out of their way to the clinic or miss work.
This week I saw two patients in follow up whom I met several months ago. Both had severe chronic, life threatening illness and both are completely symptom free now after routine care and inexpensive medication plans. Both of these patients had been burned within the system in the past, and had lost faith in medical doctors. Both had exorbitant medical bills to show for their efforts in improving their health, and in each case neither had a clear diagnosis or treatment plan to show for it. They were lost in the shuffle. Both are kind people that I am honored to care for. Both took a lot of time to get settled, but their care was also relatively straight forward and just "bread and butter" medical care any family doc is capable of if given the time.
Comments/Suggestions?
DawnMD welcomes your feedback. What is working well for you? What can we change to make things easier on you? Feel free to email us directly with your thoughts.