8 minute read
OneMed Lake Nona
ELEVATING the STANDARD of CARE
BY AMADO J. BOBADILLA
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Mindy was a beautiful, vivacious young woman in her mid-30s. She was active socially, had a promising career and a happy, carefree outlook on life. That is, until recently.
Lately, she was uncharacteristically thirsty and was experiencing tingling in her hands, arms and legs. Despite an increased appetite, ravenous at times, she was losing weight, which was great at first, but as the weight loss continued, she became concerned, especially since it was accompanied by an ongoing fatigue that she couldn’t shake no matter how much she slept or how often she rested.
Now, sitting in her doctor’s office, she understood why. She had diabetes.
The news hit her like a ton of bricks. Her spunky, energetic demeanor deflated. A dark cloud of hopelessness came out of nowhere, hovered over her and depleted her joy and purpose.
Her OneMed primary-care physician watched it all, and then she moved in with a plan that would eventually dispel the darkness and put spring back in her step. Ongoing collaboration with her psychiatry colleagues has allowed her to perceive the emotional indicators such devastating news can bring to a patient, and she was ready for the long heartfelt conversation that was to follow. The doctor listened as Mindy poured out her heart in tears and anger, and emptied herself of all the emotion, fear and trepidation she was feeling. Recognizing Mindy’s mental-health needs, the OneMed psychiatrist was integrated for collaborative care, and together their compassionate efforts built a bridge of hope. This integrative approach allowed for Mindy to get back to her old self—confident, expectant, and up for the challenges her new life would pose. Mindy now knows that there is great value in not only maintaining her physical health, but also now her “mental health.”
Dr. Peter Ganpat and Dr. Sonita Khan
“That’s something we could never have done in a traditional practice,” says Dr. Peter Ganpat, a Psychiatrist, Family-Medicine doctor with OneMed Lake Nona, a concierge clinic that blends family medicine and psychiatry and brings a paradigm of integrative care to their patients. “Physicians in a traditional practice may have been just as attentive and sensitive to their patients’ needs, but the press of their schedule and a waiting room full of patients would have prevented them from doing much about it.”
Dr. Sonita Khan, a OneMed FamilyMedicine Physician and wife of Dr. Ganpat, suggests this is what a concierge practice is all about. In a typical standard of care, she says, a patient walks into the doctor’s office to find the waiting room jam-packed. With physicians often triple-booked, they may have to wait up to an hour or more to see their physician. Then, once they see their doctor, they’ll probably only have his or her attention for five to seven minutes—and that attention may be divided because of the press of a patient load. In a concierge practice, the patient has insurance, but also pays a reasonable monthly or yearly membership fee that ensures 24/7 unrestricted access to their primary-care physician. This ensures treatment that is specific to the patient and removes current barriers. Diagnostic tests, imaging studies and hospital stays are billed via insurance, but OneMed provides unprecedented access, personalized care and an exclusivity to physicians, which is unheard of in a traditional practice. It also provides a mental-health element to ensure care for the “entire patient,” not just a superficial assessment and treatment of symptoms; a therapeutic aspect greatly needed but seldom provided in standard practice.
“A lot of health (and emotional) concerns get overlooked because physicians just don’t have the time to address them,” she says. “With a concierge service—and especially one integrating psychiatry—you have unprecedented access to your family-medicine physician and your psychiatrist, so that underlying emotional needs can be brought to the surface and addressed—needs that often go untended in a traditional practice, because the doctor doesn’t have the time to ask the right questions.”
Dr. Ganpat suggests that in a case like Mindy’s, the required lifestyle changes could cause patients to fall into a severe depression that causes them to stop eating entirely and stop taking their medication.
“Before long, their diabetes may rage out of control and their A1C could shoot through the roof,” he says, “and all this can go on in the three to six months between visits. But in an integrative practice like ours, once the patients’ proclivity to depression is on our radar, we can check on them regularly to ensure they’re following the proper regimen, and that we’re addressing their emotional needs as well.”
He says primary-care doctors don’t have to look very far to find mentalhealth issues underlying many of their patients’ physical concerns. “Traditionally, 80 percent of mental illnesses comes through a primarycare office, but with the limitations of that model, most of them leave without care. There’s a huge shortage of mental-health providers in our area, so it’s very difficult to get in to see a psychiatrist. Then you have the stigma of ‘going to see a shrink’ that keeps a lot of people from seeking the care they need. But with the integration of primary care and psychiatry that a practice like OneMed provides, patients are able to discuss their emotional challenges as a part of their primary-care visit. It’s a model the Mayo Clinic has researched extensively and found the results of its application to be profound.”
“The benefits of a concierge practice like OneMed follows patients wherever they go in the healthcare system,” says Dr. Reynald Lamarre, a OneMed Family-Medicine doctor. “Say you’re my patient and you’re in the hospital,” he says. “You will have seen a cardiologist, gastroenterologist, pulmonologist or any of a number of specialists with whom we have a relationship. They will keep me informed of your progress at all stages so that I’m never out of the loop. We can coordinate your care and even pay you a visit during your stay to lend a caring and understanding ear to your fears and concerns. Knowing your medical history, allergies or special needs ensures that traditional errors like getting the wrong meds will be far less likely than in a traditional setting. You won’t get lost in the shuffle.”
Lamarre explains that OneMed’s specialty affiliates in the community will maintain regular communication, so that once the patient is released, OneMed physicians can
Dr. Reynald Lamarre
provide a seamless continuity of care, and patients are spared the traditional extended wait for an appropriate follow-up appointment. They can contact their OneMed primary-care doctor via phone, virtually on their computer, through a special OneMed App or have an in-office appointment the same day they leave the hospital to discuss the physical or emotional aspects of their experience.
“We recognize that our community is starved for mental-health care,” says Lamarre. “We want to help bridge that gap, push the envelope and elevate the standards of care.” He says that in their hospital work, OneMed physicians see a number of people who are nowhere near receiving a proper standard of care—mental health or otherwise—once they leave the hospital.
“An integrative partnership of psychiatry and primary care that treats the entire patient is a modality that is desperately needed, especially here in Florida, where we are ranked 50th out of the 50 states for mental health and overall healthcare,” he says. “When Peter [Dr. Ganpat] and I met five years ago, we recognized a glaringly obvious disconnect between outpatient and inpatient care. We forged an alliance to give the patient the emotional and mental healthcare often lacking in a typical primary-care practice. The average primary-care doctor is carrying a panel size of a few thousand patients. Our doctors (four psychiatrists and three family-medicine physicians) carry a panel size of a few hundred, so we can offer above and beyond the standard of care, a philosophy well suited to the Lake Nona community.
“At OneMed, we’re committed to offering our patients a premium level of care that promotes their physical AND emotional well-being. We think the people of Lake Nona are tired of ‘healthcare as usual’ and deserve more. This is the answer.” l
OneMed is located at: 10129 Clear Vista St.Orlando, FL 32832
Call: 1-833-ONEMED1 or 1-833-663-6331 email: admin@ONEMED.clinic
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