Healthcare innovation: Concierge-style medicine under one roof

By Stacy Moser
Photography courtesy of Baylor Scott & White Health

As far as Dr. Jack Myers, Dr. Barbara Weiss and Dr. Curtis Mirkes are concerned, they’ve landed on a dream team. These are the doctors at Baylor Scott & White Medical Center–Temple who run the Executive Healthcare Program, a concierge-type service providing health and wellness care for busy executives whose jobs require them to make the most of every minute in their day.

Patients who’ve joined this program receive one-stop shopping, essentially, where almost every medical test or procedure can be completed under one roof—and most in one day—at the medical center.

When a patient arrives for an appointment, he or she visits the lab for any necessary tests, imaging or blood work, freeing them from running all over town for individual tests. After those tests are completed, the patient is escorted to meet their program doctor who, in many cases, already has the test results even before the patient walks down the hall and in the office door. If other healthcare services are indicated during that consultation, the patient visits a specialist in the hospital, usually within a few minutes. If a minor wait is required, they are ushered into the program’s luxe VIP suite, where they can relax in the comfortable, intimate surroundings or whip open their laptop, pour a cup of coffee and squeeze in a few emails while they wait.

“These are really busy people,” says Dr. Myers, director of the program. “They don’t want to take time off from work to do tests, then go through their primary doctor at one end of town and be referred to yet another doctor on the other end of town, missing even more days of work. We try to compress the entire process into one or two days in one spot to address their overall wellness.”

Dr. Myers describes a pre-appointment questionnaire patients are asked to complete. “We ask what medical issues they have, what medications are they on, what health-maintenance issues they have. Based on that, we usually can get a patient in and out of here in a day or less. It just depends on what they want to accomplish with their appointment.”

Dr. Mirkes describes the practice’s clientele, “Some live here in Texas, but we also see patients who travel here from places like Arkansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico or Louisiana. Patients fly here from all over.” Dr. Weiss explains that most of her patients have one thing in common. “They’re just in a hurry. They want to make time for themselves and they want to maintain their own health. But they don’t want to take a long time doing it. And they want high-quality healthcare.”

As part of this program, a patient has 24/7 access to these doctors in the office, online or over the phone, as well as expedited appointments and ample one-on-one time to discuss any medical issues they have.

So how does a program like this manage to care for its busy clients so efficiently? “We have ample staff to get them through the clinic in a timely manner, so they can go about their week and get things done,” Dr. Myers says. He explains that the team utilizes the strength of the Baylor Scott & White system to provide almost every type of healthcare imaginable. “Here, all the physicians work together to provide excellent healthcare. Our team knows the doctors and staff at the hospital really well. We can communicate by chart online or we can email and talk on the phone.”

He is quick to compliment the program’s support staff, too. “Our front desk staff and nurses are outstanding. They really go above and beyond to make sure patients are taken care of. We work miracles sometimes to get patients in and get things done, which is fantastic.” While a normal medical practice oversees the care of an average 2,500 patients at any one time, this program’s doctors keep their patient load at about 600, allowing them the luxury of spending more time with their patients.

The hospital has offered this program for more than 50 years to companies in the United States and Mexico—companies that use it as an attractive perk in their executive benefits packages. Now, though, the hospital has turned its attention to the equally busy non-executive population—those seeking an alternative to the traditional time-consuming healthcare routine. Weiss, Mirkes and Myers concur that people want access to their doctor in new, more-convenient ways. “This is just part of the evolution of healthcare,” Dr. Mirkes says. While the original intent of this program was to make healthcare access convenient for executives, now the doctors feel that the program can pioneer delivery of healthcare to any patient who desires this level of efficiency.

“I think people just want to see their doctor when they want to see him or her. They want that level of convenience, particularly with the millennial generation. So we’re using technology to enhance patients’ experience here. We know they want options, so we offer things like online scheduling and video visits,” Dr. Mirkes comments. “I just had one recently with a patient who lives in south Texas. We resolved her medical issue during a video call so she didn’t have to travel all the way here.”

The team talks about creating “touch points” in their practice—extra ways to reach out and show their patients that they really care, including nurses’ follow-up phone calls to patients who might benefit from a little extra TLC.

Dr. Mirkes uses text messaging to motivate his clients who struggle with issues like weight loss or smoking cessation. “These are a handful of my patients and we text each other,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘I want you to text me your weight every week,’ so there’s some accountability. So on Mondays I picture them saying to themselves, ‘Oh crap, I’ve got to text Dr. Mirkes my weight,’” he laughs. “And I’ll text back and say, ‘Man, you’re doing great!’ Or ‘Hey, this was a rough week. Let’s get back to it next week. How many times did you work out? What has your diet been like?’ It’s one more of those touch points we talk about.”

“I heard somebody say this is the best healthcare program he’d ever seen,” Dr. Weiss says proudly. “And it’s when a patient sends their mother or family members to us, that’s when you know you’ve made a difference. They trust us.”

“We focus on wellness and preventive healthcare here,” Dr. Myers says. “We want to make sure our patients don’t get the chronic diseases that we are used to seeing every day. We’re really active about promoting healthy lifestyles, good diets and exercise.”

“This integrative practice is just what we wanted,” Dr. Weiss says. “Most doctors dream of having a practice like this. I’m lucky to get to do this every day. It’s fun to make people healthy.”