It takes a village: Physicians adopt new approach to keep patients happy

Retail strategies permeate medicine as physician practices package themselves with urgent care clinics, fitness centers, coffee shops and open waiting areas.

By Myrle Croasdale, AMNews staff. May 14, 2007.

A group of Dallas family physicians is building their own ideal work environment, and they are not shoehorning it into a hospital complex or making it part of the typical medical office building.

Family Medical Specialists of Texas is building a medical version of the mall. Their goal is to improve their lives and their patients' by creating a one-stop shopping medical experience. The Legacy Medical Village, which will open in stages beginning in July, will offer space for primary care physicians, housing them alongside the specialists they commonly refer to and the most heavily used ancillary services, such as radiology.

The idea is that a patient will be able to see a doctor and have an x-ray, mammogram or stress test all on the same day, in the same building.

"I believe happy doctors produce happy patients," said Christopher Crow, MD, the group's point person for the project. "We want to make physicians' lives easier."

Physicians within the Legacy Medical Village will be able to share information and test results with each other electronically while remaining HIPAA-compliant, so the patient won't have to fill out the same forms at multiple offices. Physicians also will have the option of tapping into centralized billing and administration services, while remaining autonomous practices.

If all goes as planned, the Family Medical Specialists of Texas will be the first move-ins in July, and by October other specialists will join them, along with centers for imaging, sleep, urgent care and physical therapy.