Making Medicine Easier to Swallow

On a typical day, Dr. Wayne Burr sees two to six patients at his Fort Myers office. The appointments can last a leisurely 45 minutes or more, depending on the wishes or needs of the individual. For the rest of his loosely organized shift, Burr might spend time phoning in prescriptions, consulting with specialists who are treating his patients or maybe making a house call.

Such care is difficult for most of us to fathom. After all, doesn’t a visit to the doc mean long waits in crowded spaces for whirlwind consultations? And what doctor handling all of those people can take the time to call the pharmacy, let alone tend to someone at their own home?

Well, Burr can, along with a growing number of doctors in Southwest Florida who have opened practices often called "concierge" or "boutique." It’s a concept that allows for levels of patient care not commonly experienced in generations. It’s also a significant departure from a business that has defined—or hamstrung—traditional medicine for decades.

The concierge method basically requires a substantial, annual payment in exchange for round-the-clock access to a doctor and an array of convenient personal services, including the elusive house call.

"This places the control [of medical] treatment back into patients’ hands, instead of a third-party payer," says Burr, referring to insurance companies or Medicare. "This is what we thought it would be like when we were in med school. This is what our grandparents were used to for medicine."

The birth of concierge medicine, or "retainer practices" as they are labeled by the American Medical Association, can be traced to Seattle in 1996. They were developed "in response to patient and physician frustration with the unsatisfactory level of service available through the managed-care delivery system," the AMA says.