It is important that each member of your family has a primary care provider. Your primary care provider (PCP) is the physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who provides your care on a regular basis. 

If you have not chosen a primary provider, please let us know whom you would like that person to be. We have included Provider Bios to help you make your choice.

Request your PCP when you make an appointment and we will do our best to have you see the same health care provider at each visit.

Our professional staff wants to work closely with you to make sure that you and your family stay healthy, get to know your provider and your children's provider.

TYPES OF PRIMARY CARE PROVIDERS

Country Doctor Community Health Centers employs several different types of primary care providers. We have MDs, ARNPs and PAs. The designation is clearly displayed on their nametag. Listed below is a brief description of the training backgrounds for each type of provider. If you have questions, we encourage discussion of training and qualifications directly with your provider.

MD

Medical Doctors have graduated from an accredited medical school. Our MDs are Board Certified in either Family Medicine or Internal Medicine. They have attended medical school for 4 years followed by at least 3 years of specialty residency training.

ARNP

Nurse Practitioners have masters level education in nursing and are trained to perform physical examinations, order and interpret lab tests, write prescriptions and manage most common problems encountered in primary care.

PA

Physician assistants are health care professionals who are graduates of accredited physician assistant programs licensed to practice medicine under the supervision of a physician.  As part of their responsibilities, PAs conduct physical exams, diagnose and treat illnesses, order and interpret tests, counsel on preventive health care, assist in surgery, and write prescriptions. Within the physician-PA relationship, physician assistants are involved in medical decision making and provide a broad range of diagnostic and therapeutic services.

ACUPUNCTURE

We treat in a community setting

Most US acupuncturists treat patients on tables in individual cubicles.  This is not traditional in Asia, where acupuncture usually occurs in a community setting.  In our clinic we primarily use recliners, clustered in groups in a large, quiet, soothing space.  Treating patients in a community setting has many benefits: it's easy for friends and family members to come in for treatment together; many patients find it comforting; and a collective energetic field becomes established which actually makes individual treatments more powerful.  In some styles of acupuncture, the needles are removed after only a few minutes or after a half hour at most.  The style of acupuncture we practice at this clinic allows patients to relax as long as they need.  The "right" amount of time varies from patient to patient.  Most people learn after a few treatments when they feel "done"; this can take from twenty minutes to a couple of hours!  Many people fall asleep, and awaken feeling refreshed.

We have a sliding scale

Most US acupuncturists also see only one patient per hour and charge $65 to $175 per treatment.  They tend to spend a long time talking with each patient, going over medical records, asking many questions.  We don't.  The way that we can make acupuncture affordable is to streamline treatments. 

Your Treatment

At your first visit, you will fill out an extensive health history.  Your provider will go over this and then ask you a few questions. At subsequent treatments, you will be asked a few questions, your pulse and tongue will be read, and then your treatment will begin.  This is exactly how acupuncture is practiced traditionally in Asia - many patients per hour and very little talking.

Because we have a sliding scale, we cannot bill insurance companies (that's the insurance companies' rule).

Our Commitment to You

We make it possible for you to receive acupuncture regularly and for your treatments to be long enough for you to get better and stay better.  We want our community to be welcoming to all different kinds of people. We will provide a safe environment with skilled practitioners.

 Your Commitment

On your first visit, your acupuncturist will suggest a course of treatment, which can be anything from "we'd like to see you once a week for six weeks" to "we'd really like to see you three times a week for the next three weeks".   This suggestion is based on our experience with treating different kinds of conditions.  If you don't come in often enough or long enough, acupuncture probably won't work for you. The purpose of our sliding scale is to help you make that commitment.  If you have questions about how long it will take to see results, please ask us, or if you think you need to adjust your treatment plan, please let us know.  We need you to commit to the process of treatment in order to get good results.  Many individuals choose regular acupuncture treatments as part of their health maintenance.

One big reason that we are able to keep our prices low is that our patients do our marketing for us.  We cannot express how grateful we are for this.  Our patients are such effective marketers because they have first-hand experience of how well acupuncture works.  All of our satisfied patients basically made a commitment to a course of treatment.

We are excited to be able to offer this new program, and we invite you to join our community.