What do people need from their primary care doctor/practice? These are our goals at Pando: To deliver all of these with a kind heart . (1) Rapid access a. In person when necessary b. Via phone or email on an ongoing basis (2) Diagnosis, Treatment and Monitoring of acute and chronic problems with the current BEST practices (3) Close Follow-up after acute illnesses, ER visits; referral to superior specialty care when needed (4) Preventive Care a. Prophylactic Medicines, Screening Tests (Mammograms, Colonoscopy) b. Lifestyle Advice, Behavior Change Advice and Guidance with follow-up support (5) Meeting of non-medical needs a. Physical (Basic exercises for balance, body pains; medicines when appropriate; referral to the right person with the appropriate philosophy at the right time) b. Emotional (Time, Listening, Advice when asked for)
What I am trying to create at Pando is a "Better way to feel better". By this, I mean a true way to be better not a band-aid solution. I find many of the pharmacologic solutions to chronic medical problems to be band-aids and NOT real solutions. This is, of course, not always true (i.e. antibiotics for acute infections). However, in the case of treating chronic heart disease, the wide variety of neurologic conditions, chronic pain of all varieties, depression, chronic insomnia and many of the other challenges in the modern medical world, we are not creating healing with our usual "pharmacologic-only"solutions if they are done in isolation. The following NY Times article clearly addresses and clarifies this major issue in regard to treating depression. So what does "going deeper" look like? How do we help people in a more profound, more healing manner? First, we have to know and understand them. What do they believe? What hits their buttons? Are they