Source: Rhino Times Greensboro

Eagle at Lake Jeanette

by Paul C. Clark

October 29, 2010

Walk into Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette, and you will remember why they call it heath care.

Care is what Eagle Physicians is all about – and scratch the surface of the friendly family atmosphere at Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette, and you’ll find a team of top-flight specialists as well equipped to provide that care as any medical practice in Greensboro.

That team recently expanded with the addition of Dr. Loretta VanHaasteren, a specialist in internal medicine (patients call her “Dr. Van”). VanHaasteren came to Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette after years of specialization in hospital health care, honing her skills in the high-pressure world of intensive-care units and operating theaters. She said the atmosphere of the Eagle practice is much more conducive to the kind of medicine she wants to practice.

“It’s a much more physiology-based take on medicine,” she said. “The pace is slower. There’s a lot of time to talk to your patients and your colleagues. There are a lot of people here with different skills which enables us to deliver the best possible care for patients.”

Aside from possessing formidable skills, VanHaasteren is a valuable addition to Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette because she accepts new traditional Medicare patients – making her one of the few doctors in Greensboro to take traditional Medicare without supplemental insurance.

Medical practices that take traditional, or "fee-for-service" Medicare are getting hard to find, and are expected to become even scarcer under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 – the health care reform bill – which is projected to cut Medicare payments by $428 billion over 10 years.

Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette is committed to treating the whole community. Opened in 2002, the Lake Jeanette location was Eagle Physicians and Associates’ effort to serve a newly developed area of Greensboro that was largely devoid of services, medical and otherwise.

“We were one of the first businesses out here,” said Janet Barr, the director of human resources for Eagle Physicians and Associates. “We wanted to support this new and emerging community.”

Part of that commitment to serve was a desire to treat as many patients as possible with the wide range of health care services that Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette has gathered under one roof. The addition of VanHaasteren to the Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette team gives traditional Medicare patients access to Eagle Physicians and Associates’ high-quality health care in a setting in which they can be treated as a whole patient, not as a walking example of a single condition.

The Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette team was assembled with an eye toward making such holistic care possible. The Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette team includes a family practice doctor, Dr. Eve Knapp; two pediatricians, Dr. Aveline Quinlan and Dr. April Gay; internist Dr. Loretta VanHaasteren and endocrinologist Dr. Jeffrey Kerr, as well as two family nurse practitioners, Lynne Abramowitz and Rebecca Owens. Owens is also a registered dietician.

That wide range of complementary specialties gives patients who walk into Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette the confidence that comes from knowing that their medical issues won’t be looked at in isolation, and that they won’t have to go to another branch to find the expertise needed to treat them and their family members.

“What we have that’s unique is that we have so many specialties under one roof,” said Sheron Abrahams, the site administrator for Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette. “We can get everyone seen, from newborns to geriatrics.”

For example, a diabetic patient who enters Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette to be treated for complications related to his or her diabetes would be treated by Dr. Kerr, as diabetes is an endocrine disease. But that patient would also see Owens, who would use her knowledge of the ways in which diet affects diabetes to aid in treatment and to give nutritional advice. They would also see Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette’s diabetes nurse educator, Barbara Lewis, who would educate them about their conditions in ways a physician might not.

Three specialists, with interlocking skill sets, all driven by the empathetic desire to help patients – that is the hallmark of any Eagle Physicians location.

“Here, we have the advantage of many chronic-care specialists” Dr. Kerr said. “This provides me a lot of resources to treat patients. It’s a very personable, friendly, courteous place to practice. I had several people come in this week who commented on how friendly the people were here.”

One problem with many independently owned medical practices is that they don't have the size or resources to compete with larger, corporate-owned practices. The doctors who founded Eagle Physicians knew that, in order to give their patients the kind of care to which they were dedicated, they would have to create a full-service medical practice.

That full service includes not only the doctors and nurse practitioners but the medical testing resources and administration necessary to provide the medical experts with the support they need and the patients with the smooth, reliable and reassuringly thorough treatment they deserve.

To cite just one instance, Eagle Physicians and Associates recently rolled out the latest in medical records technology to make sure patients get the right treatment, at the right time, with the right medical care professionals – “just one thing we’re doing ahead of other practices,” Kerr said.

The new medical record system keeps track of appointments, maintains medication lists, remembers patient information and improves communication between doctors, pharmacists and hospitals. At the end of each patient’s visit to Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette, the system provides a visit summary detailing the treatment received and any follow-up care that’s required. The system also gives patients access to their medical records over the internet through Eagle Physicians and Associates’ innovative Patient Portal. Forget your appointment time? Check the Patient Portal. Forget when to take a medication? Check the Patient Portal.

Like all Eagle locations, Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette provides the best of both worlds – the personalized care of an old-time, small-town doctor with the cutting-edge technology and multiple specialties of a large practice.

“Even though it’s Eagle, we’re run as if it’s a small practice,” Gay said. “You get to see your primary care doctor all the time. We get to know the patients well, and their families. And, compared to going to the hospital, you can get follow-up care much easier. You get to see the same provider each time. It creates a rapport and makes it easy to get appropriate follow-up.”

The case of one Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette patient shows how the practice’s doctors, nurses and other specialists work together to provide health care that’s more effective, and more caring, than any medical professional could provide alone.

That patient reported difficulty breathing and coughing, saying she just didn’t feel right. A quick evaluation showed nothing obviously wrong, but her doctor was concerned and wanted X-rays and PET scans taken. The patient’s insurance company didn’t want to pay. Eagle Physicians at Lake Jeanette’s doctors and support staff fought with the insurance company to get the tests authorized. The test revealed two small areas of cancer, which were treated with radiation. Eagle’s staff followed through to make sure she had all the follow-up treatment she needed. “This is the type of care that Eagle Physicians strives to provide all patients,” said Sheri Raymer, CEO of Eagle Physicians.