Testimontials – News & Updates

The Primary Care Shortage: How Significant Can an Email Be?

A look att he numbers. — A look at the numbers.

We often read about the Primary Care shortage across the country continuing to grow, especially in states like Massachusetts that have a higher proportion of specialists. Some will argue that its exaggerated but numbers do not lie. Call a local doctors office and find out how long it takes to be seen as a new patient- provided they are even accepting new patients. Well here comes Direct Primary Care with smaller patient panels of 600-1000 patients versus the 2500-3000 of typical insurance based panel sizes, and along with it comes the critics. “You are worsening access,” we are told. Well the reason access to good primary care is poor is because the system is driving medical students- all with plenty of debt- into higher paying specialties. The system is forcing good docs to leave medicine early- whether it’s to retire early, move into administrative positions, or even go work for insurers! I argue that Direct Care can fix this by providing a professionally gratifying, financially rewarding experience so that more students like the ones I teach from Tufts will actually want to go into the field.

Take my current 3rd year Tufts medical student Ian Murphy who states: “I felt that a career in Primary Care would be rewarding but financially unsustainable and mentally draining. After being here for the past 3 weeks, I am now encouraged to look at and explore Primary Care more closely before making a career choice.”

And finally read this email from Salem resident Jennifer Kugel that I received a few months back (with her permission of course). She will be spending a day with me this week.

”

Hello,

I am a perspective medical school student looking to gain insight and experience into the world of medicine. I have an undergraduate degree in Sports Movement Science from Salem State University, and am planning to take the MCAT’s next April and apply by June.

I heard about Dr. Gold’s Direct Care initiative while listening to NPR a few weeks back. I was thrilled to hear that someone locally (I live in Salem) is trying to change the way healthcare is being run. When I got home I looked up his website and read through all of the pages and anecdotal stories. I was quite taken aback to find a doctor who was still interested in doing house-calls and practicing preventative medicine rather then dealing with problems as they come.

As with many people who want to become a doctor, I have envisioned it since I was a toddler. As I have gotten older and taken alternate paths to get my degree, I have continually asked myself why I want to BE a doctor. The answer is still simple; I want to help people. With healthcare operating the way it does, patients are not getting the attention they need, and problems are not caught soon enough. Too many decisions are based off of what people can or cannot afford, and not what is best for their life and lifestyle. To see that an established doctor wants to go out of his way to make the system work better for everyone involved is quite inspiring.

I would greatly appreciate an opportunity to shadow Dr. Gold and gain experience from someone with a vision of a better healthcare system. I am hoping that by the time I finish my medical school experience, that I may be able to take the vision and apply it to my own patient care.

Thank you for the consideration, and I look forward to hopefully meeting Dr. Gold in person soon.

Truly,
Jennifer Kugel

This…is how we actually fix the “access problem.”

DPC and Hospitalists

How does DPC help patients in the hospital? You can ask my patient quoted below or ask the Hospitalist who took care of him, but I would also like to comment on this.

There are many benefits to Hospital-based doctors (aka Hospitalists)- they are intelligent, well trained doctors and NP/PA’s and they provide 24/7 coverage if something goes wrong when you are admitted. We as primary care doctors used to practice hospital medicine as well as outpatient/office medicine, but for many reasons which is beyond the scope of this blog post, most if not all primary care doctors solely see patients in the office setting now. And there are many negatives to this which most patients who have been admitted to the hospital at some point can attest to:

As good and caring as these doctors and NP/PAs are, they don’t know the patient like we do.
Hospitalists often have a minimum of 10-12 patients on their census at a time some of whom may be very ill. That is a lot to manage.
As a result of #2 and the amount of documentation and computerized order entry that goes along with it, hospitalists have very little time to call and/or email the Primary Care Physician with updates on their patients.
This contributes to more fragmentation of care and increased costs to the system as a whole.
Lastly, which is the worst in my opinion, is scared and confused patients.

So what does DPC do to help this? :

We can actually come visit our patients periodically to check in and see how the hospital stay is going. The patient- like the one quoted below- gets to see their own doctor and be reassured that we are “in the loop.”
We have more time to communicate with the Hospitalists regarding our patients histories, medication lists, social situations etc. This allows us to work in a collaborative way to ensure the patient gets the best care possible.
I believe Hospitalists would appreciate this involvement rather than look at as us “stepping on toes.” We can provide information that the patient may not be capable of communicating or that they may not think is vital to their hospitalization.
The end result is what healthcare should be about- BETTER OVERALL PATIENT CARE.

So here is my patients quote/review: “If U haven’t yet signed up with Gold Direct Medical Services, U R surely walking in the wrong direction! I recently had a several day hospitalization and was actually visited by Dr. Jeff Gold, and was also privy to a conference between him and the hospital doctor, to say nothing of the several daily direct calls to me in my hospital room from him. WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME YOUR DOCTOR VISITED U IN THE HOSPITAL?”

Some date on hospital medicine:

What We Strive For With DPC

One of the main reasons I decided to make this huge career change into a Direct Primary Care practice was to give patients what they deserve from their doctor….time. One of my patients that followed me from my old practice has allowed me to post this wonderful testimonial she wrote on Facebook on Friday. Many thanks to her for doing so. This is an example of what true patient and doctor satisfaction are about:

“Today I had my first official appointment with Dr. Jeffrey Gold at Gold Direct Care. It was a phenomenal experience. His new office space is beautifully decorated and comfortable. Dr. Gold spent quite awhile with me, answering numerous questions and making me feel, as he always does, at ease. Has anyone ever gone to their primary care doctor and been greeted with: “Would you like some coffee or tea?” My visit was an experience- not rushed, not pressured to hurry up. If you want a primary care doctor who sincerely cares about you and your family and is in the practice of medicine to do just that, then you have to meet with Dr. Gold and see what Direct Primary Care is all about.”

Letter of appreciation from a patient

We received this thoughtful note from a patient today. It is truly rewarding to continue relationships with patients year after year, especially in the new form of direct care.

Dear Dr. Gold:

Congratulations on your new venture. I truly like the concept of your practice but most importantly, I am glad that I have the opportunity to continue to be a patient of yours. After being part of your practice since the beginning my decision to stay was an easy one. You have always provided the utmost professional and personal care and I look forward to this continued relationship.

Good Luck Dr. Gold and Meghann, I can’t think of a better team to be affiliated with. I look forward to the great care and personal touch that I have always received with you.