January 20, 2017

Meet Edward Espinosa of Buckhead Medicine in Buckhead

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Edward Espinosa.

Edward, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
In 2007, I was working at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. For me, the practice of medicine at that point was rushed and impersonal. I wanted a personal, meaningful relationship with my patients. I wanted to care for them in an environment that was both conducive for providing quality medical care but also allowed for education and learning. I needed to find a better way.

Many of us remember the way healthcare used to be. I remember clearly as a child growing up in Atlanta, my parents and I shared a personal relationship with my doctor. Dr. Robert Schulers’ visits were long and comprehensive, he was available to consult after-hours and on the weekends, he would see us in the hospital, he answered all our questions in an unhurried, thorough manner. We never felt rushed and we never felt alone.

I was in search of a way to practice medicine in such a way. At that time personal medical practices or concierge medical practice were all but unknown. I decided to build exactly what I was looking for and would go at it on my own. My plan was to build a medical practice that would offer all these attributes and more. At 35 years of age, I was eager to get started and anticipated that in 12 to 18 months I would be up and running with a full panel of patients ready to participate in a “better” medical practice. Boy, was I wrong. Building and growing the practice did not happen overnight. It was a slow painstaking effort. Primarily educating potential patients on the justification for paying out of pocket for services not covered by insurance. Not an easy proposition. The hurdle was primarily education and awareness. Clearly explaining to patients the limitations of the current healthcare delivery system including long wait times, short visits, impersonal relationships, limited follow-up. And highlighting the benefits of a personal care practice such as home visits, direct access to me by cell phone after hours, weekends and holidays, home visits and longer more personalized visits.

Over time my plan worked. People clearly saw the benefit. Almost ten years later Buckhead Medicine is the premier personalized medical practice. From busy young professionals to retired active individuals, these discerning patients benefit from this unique medical practice. Our patients place great value on getting and staying healthy. They care for their health in such a manner to ensure that they are healthy now and remain healthy as they age. They start early, focus on prevention and avoid illness.

Buckhead Medicine is one of Atlanta’s best-held secrets with regard to quality medical care. We continue to expand our medical offerings and in 2014, we began offering aesthetics services now including injectable and laser treatments.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Starting a medical practice that requires an additional out of pocket expense for patients during the great financial crises of 2008, not the best idea. This clearly slowed our growth early on.

Starting a medical practice with zero patients is never easy. It’s much easier to convert an existing practice to a concierge type of practice. Much more difficult to start a concierge practice with zero patients.

Government regulations are quite a challenge for small medical practices. Many hurdles to overcome with insurance regulations and compliance. This is one of the main reasons that small practices never make it. Hiring staff that truly understands the philosophy of customer service. One of our strengths as a medical practice is that this is truly one of our core values, customer service.

High upfront cost slowed growth. Overcoming the obstacle of a high upfront membership fee was a challenge. Fortunately, we implement an automated recurring billing system called Chargify that helped us provide patients with low monthly payment options and in turn relieved our office staff of the burden of bill collection and provided our business a more steady revenue stream.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about Buckhead Medicine – what should we know?
Personalized medical care or concierge medicine is a healthcare system in which the physician understands that you are the customer, not just the patient. The physician listens to what you have to say, answers your questions, and is not satisfied until you are satisfied. The physician understands the meaning of combining quality medical care, compassion, and customer service to optimally respond to your healthcare needs.

Buckhead Medicine is a revolutionary medical and aesthetics practice that provides patients with personalized, attentive, quality medical care in a low patient volume setting, with personal physician access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While most medical practices carry about 3,000 to 4,000 patients per physician, personalized medical or concierge practices typically maintain ratios of about 600 patients per physician.

Our physician is Dr. Edward Espinosa D.O., M.P.H., a board-certified internal medicine physician. Our mission is to deliver superior outpatient medical care to the North Atlanta community with an emphasis on quality of care, facilitating access to care, and focusing on the patient as our client.

Members can expect a dedicated internist who will address all concerns, same day or next day urgent appointments, coordination of care while traveling, personalized medical reports, and access to your personal physician via phone, email, and text messaging.

The annual membership to Buckhead Medicine offers several additional benefits that distinguish the practice not only from traditional internal medicine practices but more specifically from other concierge practices. A few examples are:

– Dr. Espinosa sees patients while hospitalized and will assist in the coordination of care.
– Dr. Espinosa is on staff at Piedmont, Northside & Emory at St. Joseph’s Hospitals
– Dr. Espinosa provides house calls.
– Dr. Espinosa provides in office IV fluids and IV antibiotics to help with unnecessary emergency room and hospital visits. This saves patients thousands of dollars every year.
– Our practice maintains a patient to physician ratio of 400:1 compared to other concierge practices’ ratios of 600:1

We believe this unique medical model allows for the development of a strong personal patient-doctor relationship that can lead to an overall improvement in how healthcare is delivered and may ultimately improve clinical outcomes.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Fortunately, our practice has continued to experience steady growth. We are thankful to so many people in our community that have helped this happen. Including, specialists, primary care physicians, and hospitalists that trust us and routinely refer their patients to us. Additionally, our own existing patients steadily refer friends and family members, trusting that we will provide their friends and family with the best quality medical care in Atlanta.

Pricing:

To become part of this personalized medical care practice, patients pay an annual participation fee that is not covered by commercial insurance or Medicare. This fee is based upon your age. The annual participation fees range from $1200 to $2800. Patients can take advantage of quarterly and monthly payment options with rates as low as $100 per month.

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