16 May Concierge Medicine vs. Traditional Medicine

Some people don’t know what concierge medicine is … If you were to sum up concierge medicine in a few words, how would you describe it?

Concierge medicine is having a personal physician who manages your care, who is on-call on your schedule.

What are the most impactful ways that concierge medicine benefits patients?

Concierge medicine has huge benefits for patients:

• Better access to care.
• Cutting edge medicine.
• Dealing with health issues before they become big health issues.
• Moving it within the context of your everyday life — so your health doesn’t get back-burnered until it becomes a health crisis.

What drove you to create Conciergemdla?

Working at an urgent care facility, the expectation was five minutes per patient. I was putting band-aids on patients, not getting to the root of the problem. That’s not a satisfying experience for the patient or for the physician. So I started looking for a better way and decided to open my concierge medical practice.

For me, it was the right decision. It takes away the time pressure and actually takes money out of the equation because my membership patients pay a flat rate. I have time with my patients to diagnose properly, work on implementing lifestyle changes and treat the underlying problem more effectively.

Are there problems associated with the typical delivery of medical care that Conciergemdla successfully avoids?

Concierge medicine is about delivering and receiving quality care without disrupting the patient’s life. For my urgent care patients, it’s about intervention coupled with follow-up. For primary care, it’s about optimizing wellness.

What often happens is that a patient first calls me for an urgent care appointment. Once patients experience how much better it is to have a concierge doctor, it’s a natural next step to transition to membership concierge services, where the emphasis moves from urgent care to optimizing health.

As a concierge wellness doctor, I use advanced medicine to diagnose and treat my patients and I’m their advocate, coordinating care in a way that fits their health and lifestyle needs. Some patients email me and text me on an ongoing basis, so there’s open dialogue and I’m always in the loop; I’m a part of their lives in a positive and frictionless way.

ASK DR. MALKIN is a series of medical questions posed to Dr. Abe Malkin, MD, MBA, a Los Angeles house call doctor. Board-certified in family medicine, Dr. Malkin is a concierge physician in Los Angeles and founder of Conciergemdla.com. Dr. Malkin has served as a medical expert for several news media organizations. Have questions for Dr. Malkin? Submit them to info@conciergemdla.com.

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