At OHSU's Center for Women's Health, a 'concierge' medicine ...

Hundreds of women received unsettling news from the Center for Women's Health at Oregon Health & Science University last week. Three of the four internal medicine physicians and a nurse practitioner at the center are leaving to practice elsewhere, a letter to patients said. The fourth internist is taking an extended leave of absence.?

OHSU officials say it's not the end of the unusual clinic, an internal medicine group nested within a larger obstetrics and gynecology clinic, and in which most patients elect to pay an annual fee for a "concierge" service called Life Choice offering longer visits with doctors and other amenities.?

"It's been a very effective part of the Center for Women's Health," said Dr. Charles Kilo, chief medical officer for OHSU Hospital. The center, he said, has already begun recruiting new physicians. During the transition, primary care providers from other OHSU locations will care for Life Choice and other patients of the internal medicine clinic.?

The Center for Women's Health began offering Life Choice in 2006, under the direction of Dr. Anne Nedrow. Doctors guaranteed same day or next business day appointments, and direct telephone access at all times. House calls were an option. Annual memberships cost $300 to $850, depending on age, or $1,000 for the highest level of service. About 1,200 patients had enrolled by 2009, according to a report in the Portland Business Journal.?

Dr. Aaron Caughey, director of the Center for Women's Health and chairman of obstetrics and gynecology, attributed the departure of the three Life Choice physicians to "a unique set of individual, personal decisions."?

Dr. Heather Baskin, he said, will join the Baskin Clinic, a local concierge medicine practice started in 2005 by her husband Dr. Lester M. Baskin. Dr. Jill Miller and Dr. Melaura Wittemeyer are moving to Greenfield Health, the concierge practice Kilo founded in 2001 and then left for his current job at OHSU.?

Nedrow remains on staff at OHSU, but is taking leave "to reorganize her practice and activities," Caughey said. Nurse practitioner Lindsay Field is joining the OHSU Family Medicine practice at Gabriel Park in Southwest Portland. Two departing physicians, Baskin and Wittemeyer, did not return calls seeking comment. Miller could not be reached.?

In letters to patients, the Center for Women's Health offered assurances that women can expect uninterrupted care if they choose to stay with the internal medicine practice.?

"We understand that some patients will follow their primary care physicians to their new practices, and we would never get in the way of that -- they are great," Kilo said. "But we will work hard for patients to stay here also."?

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com/health/index.ssf/2011/05/at_ohsus_center_for_womens_hea.html

nissan leaf trampoline jeremy renner google offers amy smart