Portland Direct Primary Care
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Beyond 7 minutes

I trained as a Family Doctor so that I would be ready to help patients with any challenge. The old school family doc used to take that skill set out into the community on house calls, sports sidelines, and town hall meetings. At some point the job description was boiled down into a job that started and ended with a 7 minute office visit. That setup is not good for patients, and it's not good for doctors. In this column I hope to start to push the boundary of where the doctor patient interaction takes place - onto the page, into the community, and beyond 7 minutes.

3 years of direct primary care

It’s hard to believe that 3 years ago Portland Direct Primary Care was a vacant office and a dream. Since then we have decked out the office, grown to over 300 members, and even been featured on the nightly news! None of this would have been possible without the support of friends, family, neighbors, and patients who have helped the practice in so many ways. The success of PDPC has shown that excellent physician led primary care is attainable with or without insurance, that having a direct line of communication with your doctor is worthwhile, and that independent primary care practices can still thrive in a modern health care marketplace. Into year four and beyond we plan to continue to adapt to what patients tell us they need and want and to continue to offer primary care to people who believe that working around the insurance based system can lead to better and more affordable care. To all those who helped PDPC get where it is today, thank you!

Oren Gersten, MD