Category: Updates

Dr. Carmela Mancini joins Gold Direct Care

Hello, I am Dr. Carmela Mancini and I have recently joined Gold Direct Care. I am so excited to be a part of the Direct Primary Care movement! Like many physicians in today’s healthcare environment, I realized that my idea of being a doctor was not possible in the current system. I wasn’t able to spend the necessary, quality time with patients; decisions were often based on what insurance dictated and not what I thought was medically appropriate; there was disintegration of the doctor-patient relationship. This is when I discovered Direct Primary Care and I have not looked back.

 

I am board certified in Internal Medicine and have spent the last several years as a hospitalist. Prior to medical school I received a Masters degree in Public Health and spent 5 years as a public health advocate and epidemiologist. I subsequently went to medical school at Nova Southeastern University and eared a degree in Osteopathic Medicine. I completed my residency in Internal Medicine at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, MA.

I am very excited to be accepting new patients. Please contact the office at 781-842-3961 or email me at drmancini@golddirectcare.com to schedule a free consultation.

For those of you interested in learning more about Direct Primary Care please attend one of our information sessions at the Salem Waterfront Hotel (225 Derby Street Salem, MA  01970) on November 9 (1-3 or 7-9) or November 17 (1-3 or 7-9). Go to http://findnsave.wickedlocal.com/Local-Ads/a-634135/Gold-Direct-Care for complete details or call 781-780-2461 to RSVP.

Harvard Medical School Meets Gold Direct Care

CLvFNXVWUAAcOBR.jpg-largeI am writing this as a sincere thank you to the Research Team and Incite Health at the Center for Primary Care at Harvard Medical School for taking the time to visit us this summer to see and hear what Direct Primary Care is all about (Here is link to story: Harvard Medical School Team Visits Gold Direct Care). If an institution of Harvard Medical Schools caliber can get behind this model of care, the potential for growth and implementation is boundless. Hopefully, we showed their team that the simplistic model of Direct Primary Care in combination with an appropriate high deductible/Health Savings Account insurance plan accomplishes everything that the Quadruple Aim is about:

  • Lower costs….even for insurers
  • Better health outcomes
  • Happier Doctors
  • All of which lead to the most important goal….HAPPIER PATIENTS!

Hopefully our relationship with their group- as well as other medical schools- will continue to grow as we continue our efforts to get more patients, doctors, employers, insurers, and legislators to buy into an old but new model of care that actually makes sense for all. The top down approach is not working so why not ground up?

Now Supplying Vaccines To Kids Under 19 Years!

gdc white background

So after battling with the state of Massachusetts since February, we finally got the okay to supply State Vaccines.  The vaccines which we can supply are:

  • DTaP (Helps children develop immunity to three deadly diseases caused by bacteria: diphtheria, tetanus, and whooping cough aka pertussis.)
  • Hep A (Used for prevention of  liver disease caused by the hepatitis A virus.)
  • Hep B (Used for prevention of  liver disease caused by the hepatitis B virus.)
  • HIB (Used for prevention of invasive disease caused by Haemophilus influenzae type b bacteria.)
  • IPV (Used to combat poliomyelitis aka Polio.)
  • PCV13 (Used to protect infants and toddlers from pneumococcal disease.)
  • RV (Oral Dosage- Used to prevent Rotavirus which is a contagious virus that can cause gastroenteritis.)

These vaccines can be supplied to anyone under the age of 19.  However, we will not be supplying HPV or Menactra(Meningococcal Meningitis Vaccine).  We do have places we can send our patients to receive these vaccines at a cash price, or by using their insurance.

We will be implementing a $20 inoculation fee to help pay for the needles and syringes.  This is just a one time fee per visit, NOT per vaccination.

If you have any questions, or would like to set up an appointment, please call our office at 781-842-3961.

If you would like to know more about the vaccines, or what schedule your child should be on, you can visit the CDC website here.

 

The Home Visit: Bringing It Back

norman-rockwell-doctor-doll-posters

Yesterday I did a home visit for one of my long time patients that recently got discharged from a Skilled Nursing facility. She has a very complex medical history and has been in and out of hospitals and rehab facilities over the past few years. She is frail and elderly and getting to her dialysis sessions three times a week takes a lot of energy out of her. So why is it necessary for her to expend a lot of energy and experience pain to physically come in for a visit to see me? The answer is it’s not anymore.

See… in the current medical system doctors and nurse practitioners only get reimbursed by 3rd party payers if the patient physically comes in and meets with the doctor face to face. The doctor sees a complex patient like mine for 10-15 minutes if lucky (or if longer end up an hour behind), and then spends a majority of time documenting and coding the visit in order to get paid. Sounds great for the patient and doctor huh? Not exactly. It doesn’t work and it makes no sense.

So that brings me to yesterday.  Since I no longer have to see 20-25 patients a day like a machine, I now have control over how I practice medicine and the type of care I provide. By contracting solely with the patient, I can drive 2 minutes to my patient and see her at her home. I spent 70 minutes with her and her children. We reviewed her discharge paperwork, her multiple medications (trying to taper her off a few), and discussed any current issues or concerns they had. I then wrote a brief note documenting the plan and emailed the specialists involved with her care to update them as well. The focus was and is solely on THE PATIENT. All of her and her families questions were answered and we have a solid plan in place to prevent her from ending up back in the hospital- a place she dreads and I don’t blame her. Now we can work as a team to be proactive rather than reactive. We can work towards solid pain management, reduce unnecessary medications and testing, and keep her home where she is safer and more comfortable. Her quality of life is significantly better because her care is better.

And what did I receive in return? A great deal more than $30 or her monthly fee of $125.  After 8 years of caring for this woman I got to see her in her ideal setting- her home. I got to learn about the little toy animals she keeps as her hobby. I saw her family in action taking car of her and making her quality of life the best possible. Carpets have been removed so she doesn’t trip with her walker. She has a bell so she can ring in the middle of the night if she is in pain or needs something. And now she has her physician capable of coming to her and spending over an hour with her to make sure she is heard and cared for with dignity. So I got a lot more….I got to be a doctor. Not a bad value proposition for the two core people that make medicine tick- the patient and their doctor.

Tufts Family Medicine

So today I spent an hour speaking about Direct Primary Care to 1st and 2nd year medical students at Tufts University that are interested in Family Medicine or Primary Care in general. It was a great experience to see students engaged and interested in pursuing a field of medicine that desperately needs young, bright, and energetic minds. They asked intelligent questions and hopefully learned that there is hope on the horizon for primary care. There is a currently a shortage of good primary care physicians across the country, but especially here in Massachusetts. We need to fix this and the only way to do so is to make Family Medicine palatable, financially rewarding, and most importantly gratifying by focusing on patient care. Read this article from 2013 for more information: http://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-physician-relationships/primary-care-shortage-dire-in-massachusetts.html

Direct Primary Care, in my opinion, is a way to build off the positives of our healthcare system and simultaneously remove the bureaucracy and red tape of insurance that does nothing to help patients or control costs. We have a solid foundation to work off of, but we have to modify it without scrapping the whole construct. DPC does this. It allows insurance to be used the way it was intended to be used- for catastrophic, high cost events or illnesses.

In my hour with them today, I hope I was able to show the students that if we keep fighting the good fight and do the right thing, maybe someday DPC will become the norm rather than the exception. I hope the more than 200 patients we have enrolled already can attest to the value and quality of this old, yet new, model of primary care.

As Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

Open House and Information Sessions in February

We’ll be hosting a number of sessions in the coming weeks to give you a chance to visit the new office of Gold Direct Care in downtown Marblehead. Please stop in to see the office and meet our team.

Dr Gold and Meghann Dunn

There are two types of events planned:

OPEN HOUSE – All are welcome. Open to the public, no RSVP needed.
Come see the new office, meet Dr. Gold, and learn more about Gold Direct Care. Snacks and refreshments will be served.

Three open houses:
– Monday, Feb 23rd, 4-6pm
– Wednesday, Feb 25th, 4-6pm
– Friday, Feb 27th, 4-6pm

INFORMATION SESSIONS – Space is limited. Please RSVP for a specific session via email or call 1-800-939-1850, Ext 1.
Dr. Gold will give a detailed presentation on Gold Direct Care, including Q&A for patients, employers and local businesses.

Four session times:
– Tuesday, Feb 24th, 12-1pm and 4-6pm
– Thursday, Feb 26th, 12-1pm and 4-6pm

All events will take place at the new office of Gold Direct Care at 123 Pleasant St, Suite 105, Marblehead, MA. Our office is the front-right corner of the new building that houses the Warwick Theater and Palmer’s Restaurant. There is ample parking behind the building, and you can enter directly from the door adjacent to the parking lot.

Meet Meghann Dunn

Meghann is the nurse and office coordinator at Gold Direct Care.

meghann at desk“Hi, I’m Meghann Dunn. I was born and raised in Florida and moved up to Massachusetts about six years ago. I have always wanted to help people throughout my life, and have been volunteering at food banks and homeless shelters since I was young. When I moved to Massachusetts, I found my passion for helping others could be realized through becoming a nurse.

My hobbies include playing and coaching soccer, hiking, kayaking, and reading the occasional horror novel.

I am excited for the opportunity to work with Jeffrey Gold because I truly believe in his vision. I fully support anyone who feels everybody deserves access to quality healthcare. Being able to be a part of a family care setting, where there is more of a direct relationship between patient and healthcare providers, will give me the opportunity to understand my patient’s individual needs.

I  am proud to join Gold Direct Care and I look forward to working with you and yours.”

Gold Direct Care Office Opens in Downtown Marblehead

We’re thrilled to announce the opening of our new office!

Construction wrapped up last week, and we’re still working on stocking the supply cabinets, but the office is open and we’re seeing patients.

Update: Open houses scheduled for February.

awning view from the street

When you first visit Gold Direct Care, you’ll immediately notice that we’re different from the typical doctor’s office. Read more about what makes a Direct Primary Care Office special.

Update on the Office Construction

We are getting close to opening day on February 2, 2015!

Our office is located at 123 Pleasant Street in Marblehead, MA – in the same building as the Warwick Theater and Palmers Restaurant.

We’re located conveniently on corner of the first floor, with an entrance right from the sidewalk. The area has ample street parking, and the building includes a large parking lot in the back.

See some picture of the status on our office construction: