I am in love ... with direct primary care

Yes! It is true, I found love. It is so beautiful. Magical. Direct primary care.

Of course, I am trying to be humorous here. Before people lose their minds, yes, my wife, Arshia, is my other true love ;-). She manages it all and puts up with my crazy ideas. God bless her. I am still amazed how she agreed to support a scrawny kid waiving his old school medical bag and yelling "I'm mad at this health care system and I am gonna show people a better way to do it!"

2020 was a challenging year for all of us indeed. BUT, I always look at challenges as lessons. Sometimes in life we are not ready for the things we want to do and life throws challenges at us to get us ready for big endeavors. These lessons make us stronger, more creative, and more informed. In 2020, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, we saw millions of Americans turn to their tablets, phones, and computers to visit with their doctors. The country all of a sudden started practicing direct care! Medicare changed its rules and said use ANY video conferencing ability, including FaceTime to visit with your doctor. Use whatever!

Hmmm, I remember screaming this back in 2014 holding my rugged medical school bag, wearing roughed up scrubs, and doing house calls with this crazy idea!

I was already doing telemedicine visits prior to the pandemic and my patients and I became even closer this year. We struggled together. As an Internal Medicine physician and Hospital Medicine specialist, it is so rewarding to manage the chaos in the hospital. But, to take care of people through various settings including the outpatient clinic, long term acute care hospital, assisted living, and finally home is the most rewarding experience.

To see someone who was in the hospital for an acute COVID-19 pneumonia for more than 50 days with a trach and feeding tube come off the assistance of a ventilator and literally walk to their car on discharge day at our long term acute care hospital is the best feeling in the world!

At LiveActive Primary Care, we have accomplished something really significant. Direct Primary Care is a mindset, attitude, a philosophy. It is not just a way to practice medicine in an office and go home at night. No. It is more than that.

We take this attitude and mindset of preserving the sacred relationship between physician and patient and apply it to ALL settings of health care. We intend to show the world that direct primary care influences ALL aspects of care in our health care system. It means we do not allow third parties to dictate what care someone gets. It means we get creative. We tie loose ends. We create game plans. We communicate with the entire team of people who will help someone live their best quality of life. It means breaking down silos and leveraging each of our talents to serve our community at the highest level.

Our team has grown quite a bit in just a few months. We demand 2 things when we are approached by someone who wants to join our team. One, you have to smile and laugh...genuinely! Two, you have to have passion for what you do and be willing to take your talents to the highest level. No fear. Our organizational philosophy is that each one of us brings unique talents and experiences and we should respect that. If we allow it to thrive and be challenged, we all benefit from the exceptional service that is created. We do not allow any barriers to get in our way of providing the best care to our community.

So, going into 2021, we are preparing to take our attitude of direct primary care even further. Currently, we provide services in assisted living facilities, hospital, long term acute care hospital, our office, and at home. There is more work to be done. Why can't cardiology or pulmonary services provide direct care? Why not? Why can't we eliminate readmissions to hospitals for things that can be managed by hospital trained providers in the community? Can hospital services be done at home? Why not? Why are there soups of specialists in complex cases? Do we really need to have so many specialists involved? Are we treating to optimize quality of life or padding statistics or did we forget to even understand a patient's definition of quality of life before we even started a treatment plan? So much more to come...

If you or a loved one would benefit from our love for direct primary care, JOIN US! To enroll, click on the link - JOIN NOW.

A sincere thank you to all my wonderful family, friends, colleagues, dear patients and their families for your continued support and trust.

Here is to a blessed and healthy 2021!

Your physician,
Dr. Haseeb Ahmed