How can a system that provides health and promises wellness be so sick itself? The United States has the greatest health care technology and advances in the world, spends more money for health care than any other nation, but is ranked #37 among the world’s healthiest nations. What is the illness that has dramatically affected Healthcare? The whole premise and promise of a medical system is to satisfy medical, emotional and psychological needs of patients. But Healthcare in the United States has become a pathetic model meant to satisfy the financial needs of insurance companies and employers. See the following for more info

Patients struggle to find a medical provider who can see them in a timely fashion and address all of their health concerns. Instead they find that it takes weeks to schedule an appointment, then have to wait for hours in crowded “waiting rooms” to finally endure the “hurried” healthcare approach so prevalent among offices today.

Declining reimbursement from insurance companies has forced physicians to see greater numbers of patients each day. This results in scheduling delays and longer wait times to see your physician. Hurried and impersonal office visits lead to an obvious lack of compassion and distraction from a deserved focus on preventative care. Physicians are as frustrated as their patients, as the current model of healthcare prevents a physician from focusing on the very reason they chose the career that they trained for—their patients.

In order for patients and their physicians to control the direction and cost of individual healthcare management, a trend among primary physicians is beginning to become more popular. In 1996, a successful model of medical practice called “concierge medicine” began to implement “retainer fees”—a fee that entitled patients to finally have the care that they deserved including improved access to his/her physician, longer appointment times, and more personalized and individualized care. For the physician this meant more time to spend with patients in preventative medicine, building stronger patient-physician relationships, and less reliance upon insurance reimbursement to pay overhead expenses.

An ancient Chinese proverb claims: A good physician treats disease, a better physician cures disease, but the best physician prevents disease. Concierge practices have resulted in increasingly satisfied patients (and doctors) and improved overall healthcare. Studies conducted by MDVIP (a concierge business based in Florida) have proven that patient satisfaction improved significantly and hospitalizations decreased dramatically (See reference here) among patients belonging to retainer-type practices.

Dr. Brimhall has practiced medicine in the Las Vegas Valley since 2001. Since 2004 he has been the owner and proprietor of Desert Medical Consultants and has had a successful and thriving Internal Medicine solo practice, but has also watched reimbursement steadily decrease to not meet overhead expenses. Prior to 2004, Dr. Brimhall worked under the coercive umbrella of managed care.

Because of constraints inherent in the classical health care model—fiscal constraints and those related to the provision of care—it has become more and more difficult to provide high quality comprehensive and preventative care to patients. Desert Medical Consultants now aspires to deliver dedicated, quality medical care to all patients, as well as to act as the patients’ most trusted advocate for emotional, physical and social needs.