Private, safer, better. We listen

Our focus for senior patients is handling their primary care and urgent needs at home.  Families find having a complex patient at home can be at least two things at the same time:

• better care at home 
• AND overwhelming.

We have guided more than 4,700 families with seniors -- helped them see the forest for the trees. Our medical team solves the important issues first, then works to eliminate unnecessary ER visits and unnecessary transport.  

Many families new at caring for an older family member also ask for help navigating insurance, choices for at-home care, skilled nursing, physical therapy and medical equipment at home.  We track good answers for all your questions.  

Our goal: make this easier for you and better for your loved ones.

NOTE: We can schedule vaccines, tests for bacteria or viruses, and other lab tests as part of our appointments.  It is easy. We do it all the time.

• Pay by the visit, 

          or 

• Low monthly payments as part of  ongoing direct primary care.

Medical staff are even able to handle more difficult geriatric concerns in the home such as: 

• uncontrolled medical conditions,
• complex diagnosis and cases,
• advanced wound care,
• bowel impaction, 
• respiratory distress, 
• intractable pain, 
• complex labs for specialists,
• and even discussions about when or if hospice is appropriate.  

Doctors appointment, labs, treatment, catheters, wound care, x-rays, ultrasounds, extended easy consultations, specialist coordination, orders for visiting nurses, capacity declaration for the bank or conservatorship hearing and much more all done at home.  

Lymphedema and venous fluid

Our team sees many cases where the venous fluid  leaks through the skin due to excess pressure. The medical staff are experts at improving those conditions. 

Pressure ulcer wound care 

We see more wound care cases than most medical groups.  We spend so much time with wounds that our team re-discovered that the 1950's treatment (for pennies) is as-or-more effective than modern (expensive) silver-based meds. 

We write orders for home health and wound care nurses to follow up -- one of the ways we leverage your Medicare insurance coverage to help you.   Call & we'll share details.

Our seventeen-person medical staff is all about making life easier for seniors.

• Pay by the visit, 

           or 

• Monthly payment for ongoing direct primary care.

Our appointments are often 45 to 60 minutes actually with the doctor. 

 
Dr. Santi, Dr. Pfahler, Dr. Kondal and Dr. Crowe's experience uniquely prepared them for solving the medical needs of geriatric patients -- and their supporting families -- at home.   We have more 100 to 106 year old patients than we expected when starting this medical group in 2011.

Never rushed.  We provide MORE care and attention than most insurance companies allow.

Labs are a BIG problem for seniors. In addition to normal labs, we also can draw critical STAT labs and drive those directly to the hospital laboratory.  

We are also one of the earliest practices on the west coast to offer PCR gene sequencing tests for respiratory, gastrointestinal, wound cultures, urine cultures and more.  PCR identifies DNA of harmful bacteria -- even of bacteria that refuse to grow in traditional lab agar -- FASTER than traditional lab tests.  

Then PCR plus NGS (next genetic sequencing) QUICKLY provides antibiotic sensitivities that are impossible to get any other way.  Yes, Medicare WILL pay for these tests.  Most insurance companies too.  PCR labs are even inexpensive as private pay for those with no insurance at all.

Pain management

The medical staff is conservative about recommending narcotics (only 5.42% of our census at our last count).  

Medical staff are also open to discussing alternative therapies when medically appropriate.  We have had significantly better outcomes for cancer and orthopedic pain patients by avoiding opioids. 

Legal affairs

Mental capacity evaluations can be done in the home when your loved one can no longer manage their own affairs -  or needs proof that they are still sharp as a tack.  We support many families in the middle of the court conservatorship process when that is appropriate.

No rush.  Our extended consultation at your mom or dad's home means that our shortest doctor's appointment is longer than even the very longest Medicare-allowed time.

While we do NOT accept Medicare for this extended access to the doctor -- all your lab tests, meds, visiting nurses, physical therapy and other services WILL BE ORDERED USING using the Medicare coverage you have available.

Years of  seeing patients whose needs had changed at home makes Dr. Crowe's team sensitive to the effects of: 

• difficult changes in routine
• the less-than-fun aspects of using medical transport just to get to another medical office
• physical exhaustion and potential harm from sitting in a wheelchair for hours 
• the need to listen more carefully

We know there are major changes at this time in your life. We are a house call doctor in Thousand Oaks here to help you.