July 23, 2012
New Trend in Medical Care Comes to Sioux City
News, Weather and Sports for Sioux City, IA: KCAU-TV.com
Healthcare in America is changing, and so are doctors – in an effort to keep their businesses profitable and improve relationships with their patients.
Mark Carlson of Siouxland Adult Medicine is the first doctor in Iowa to convert his practice to the “personalized healthcare” model, also know as “concierge medicine.”
Is this the future of medicine?
After more than two decades as a primary care physician, Dr. Mark Carlson said he felt like he was being pulled farther and farther away from his patients.
“There’s nothing more special to me than the doctor/patient relationship that you build up over a number of years with people,” said Dr. Carlson.
So, three months ago, he made a drastic change: completely converting his practice to a model called “concierge medicine,” or “personalized healthcare.”
It’s like hiring your doctor as a private contractor: you pay them up front and the result is a medical experience tailored to your individual needs.
“What this personalized healthcare concept allows me to do is gives me the financial freedom to spend more time with people and provide more intense services,” explained Carlson.
Dr. Carlson says it’s an ideal arrangement for patients managing one or many diseases or conditions. He’s able to spend about a half hour with his patients at each appointment. Good news, for people like Susan Pinney, who has diabetes.
“I just feel like it’s really personalized care and that’s really important to me that I stay well and healthy, because I’m a mom, I have four children and I have a grandchild now, so it’s really important for me to stay as healthy as I can,” said Pinney, one of Dr. Carlson’s patients.
But the cost is different in this model, too. Patients pay $1,500 out of pocket annually.
Dr. Carlson says the purpose of that model is prevention: putting money up front – saves money that could be spent on trips to the hospital down the road.
“This is where you really save money – you effectively manage those high utilizing patients, effectively manage their medical problems, and keep them out of the hospital – out of the high cost centers,” he says.
So is it worth it? Susan says, for her, it is.
“I think prevention is where it’s at and if you have a good physician and a good working relationship, it’s just a model for success,” she said.
“This is a way for us to provide that high level of quality and patient access and time with the patient that they deserve,” commented Dr. Carlson.
All of Dr. Carlson’s practice is personalized healthcare now. Patients who didn’t choose the new model had help switching over to another doctor.
