ConciergePhysicians

Here is what Keidi Dawley, writing for Medialife, had to say in this January 14th article: “Norman Rockwell thought so much of him that he drew him again and again through his long years as an illustrator famous for his iconic images of American life, and that he was, the family doctor.He was there on the corner, or the next block over, his offices a convenient walk. He delivered children, gave them their shots as they grew up, patched busted limbs, attended to the dying. He may have been ill-schooled–so much of the science of medicine didn’t exist 50 years ago–but he knew his patients and their families and what ailed them, giving the best advice he could from that knowledge. Then he was gone.A revolution in medicine came, and with it health plans and co-pays and HMOs, and with all of that assemblyline medicine. If it is the best in the world, as many argue, it’s also the most expensive, and at its root there is a lingering dissatisfaction over the sense that something had been lost. That’s individual care.Now the family doctor is returning. It’s an emerging approach to healthcare called variously concierge or boutique medicine, but in essence it’s old-fashioned family doctoring.For all the huge advances in medicine, especially in detecting illnesses at their earliest stages, a major flaw of assemblyline medicine is that it’s build to treat illness once it sets in. The aim of boutique medicine is to prevent illness, or better promote wellness, by reconnecting the patient with doctor who can read charts but also read his patients, truly knowing them, their histories, their family histories, and all the quirks of their bodies.”