Name: Anastasia (Staci) Benson, DO
Location: Paradigm Family Health: Dallas, TX
Specialty: Family Physician (Direct Primary Care)
Imagine yourself as a patient, free to schedule visits any time you wish. During those visits, you can expect to spend an average of 45 minutes, face to face with your doctor. You can also call your doctor anytime, even on nights and weekends.
Now imagine yourself as that doctor. Today, the average family physician sees 25-30 patients a day, averaging only seven minutes with each. It’s no surprise that many GPs today report feeling overworked, underpaid and even burned out. But not you. You enjoy an average of 45 minutes with each of your patients. You see, at most, five or six patients per day. Your patients can call you anytime, but surprising they rarely do. You love your job and your lifestyle. You know your patients and they know you. Your practice model enables huge health-care cost savings but your income still matches or exceeds that of your traditional family practice colleagues.
So what’s the catch? Is this a concierge practice limited to wealthy patients? A Utopian practice model existing only in theory? No, it’s real, it’s simple and it’s called, simply enough, Direct Primary Care (or DPC). Also, for those of you who aren’t family physicians, stay tuned because this is a dynamic model, not limited to just family medicine.
Dr. Staci Benson is an expert who knows her stuff about DPC practice. She’s also a family physician with her own DPC practice. Her practice model (and financials) are completely transparent, so we’ll take a look under the hood. Is the DPC model too good to be true? This is one of those episodes that may challenge your traditional thinking, your practice, and your future. With that said, let’s get started.
Links and more:
Dr. Benson’s practice: http://www.paradigmfamilyhealth.com/
DPC helped NC county save $1.8 million: http://www.johnlocke.org/research/direct-primary-care-for-local-governments/
New Primary Care Model Delivers 20 Percent Lower Overall Healthcare Costs, Increases Patient Satisfaction and Delivers Better Care: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-primary-care-model-delivers-20-percent-lower-overall-healthcare-costs-increases-patient-satisfaction-and-delivers-better-care-300021116.html
DPC Organizations:
PeerSpectrum | Journeys in Medicine 
This is my first introduction to Direct Patient Care (DPC)
Dr Benson explained this very nicely and the hosts Keith Menkin and Colin asked very pertinent questions about this type of practice.
The benefits as I understood them include: decreased patient costs to include decreased costs for
things such as meds and procedures. Average time spent with the patient is 45 min. I can see where this would allow more time for the patient to express his/her concerns and decrease the number of follow-up visits. Availability of provider: 24/7 via phone after hours, sometimes necessitating house calls.
At first I was concerned about the latter and how this particular provider could be available (in addition to attending the needs of her 2 y/o) But she explained that her patients and families have only called
for urgent matters, that could not wait until the next day.
The 45 min patient visit times is very appealing to me and I can see how it can greatly benefit the patient. When I was at UNC doing my clinical for my NP program, I found it very frustrating when clinic
times were limited to 15 min per visit. Many times it was next to impossible to address the important concerns of the patient in one visit. This concerned me so much I decided not to work in a clinic after graduation –
I worked in the community and then in-patient setting.
I’m hoping that there will be follow-up podcasts with Dr Benson. I anticipate hers and other DPC clinics
will continue to be successful and I look forward to hearing all about it!
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