Sweetgrass Psychiatry is not a Boutique practice, as someone wrote. It offers uncompromising quality with an enduring impact to anyone who walks in the door.
"What do those terms, concierge practice, and boutique medicine, mean?
https://www.verywellhealth.com/what-is-boutique-medicine-a-concierge-doctor-practice-2615093
More and more doctors are practicing boutique medicine and opening concierge practices in an effort to avoid dealing with medical insurance and reimbursements.
The cost involved in simply billing insurance companies or Medicare in order to be reimbursed for the services a doctor has provided is onerous, too. Offices must employ a team of people to process insurance reimbursements, or they hire expensive billing services, making the expense of reimbursement more costly than actually performing the healthcare services for the patient.
Some doctors, most notably in primary care, have decided they don't like this model and feel the services they offer suffer in terms of quality because of it. Those doctors have changed their practices so they no longer work with insurance at all."
Sweetgrass Psychiatry is one of just two psychiatry practices in the area that accepts insurance, which ensures it serves the needs of nearly all.
Those with insurance and not just those who are cash rich, can see a Harvard trained Psychiatrist, or if she is temporarily booked, there are a dozen or more other providers. For example, I am a retired school teacher with very little savings, but Dr. Brittany Albright accepts Medicare, which offers her a very low reimbursement rate. She could bump me at any point for a higher return on her investment, but she has remained loyal to me.
My daughter, Sxxxx, sees a psychologist at college, and Dr. Albright manages Sxxxx's medication. As wont of many young people, Sxxxx has too often run out of medication on a Friday night or weekend. I have told her many times, that Sweetgrass is open extended hours from no later than 8:00 AM and often after 5:00. but it is not an ER that operates 24/7. I have told her too often, "Don't make your emergency Dr. Albright's emergency!"
I must admit, that I cannot get Dr. Albright on the phone!!! Yes, I am impatient and sometimes I act like a 2-year old and want to talk to her RIGHT NOW, but I cannot! WAAAAA! Why not!!!
BECAUSE SHE IS WITH PATIENTS, back-to-back-to back. So, I send her a personal HIPAA confidential email via my Patient Portal, and she kindly responds in a timely manner, often, very late at night, weekends, even holidays. I have never met a doctor who offers better PATIENT-BASED customer care and service, even to the detriment to her family time. It is just not possible for any doctor to exceed her work ethic and connectedness to her patients!
Best Practices allows her to bill me for the extra time/service/ CARE, but she does not. I consider ANY reply as a personalized gift. I am not a member of the Generation Z who seem to have expectations that all of society should be available 24/7. Patients and customers don't conceive of what professionals of all strata deal with to handle the constant bombardment of intrusive emails.
See:
National Institutes of Health
"Death by Patient Portal"
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37389857/
Someone wrote: "We found we had to conform to the needs of the practice and providers instead of the practice and providers reaching out to meet the needs of the patient."
I had to smirk and SMH, b/c I am thinking of MUSC. Yup, they have a patient portal, but a nurse or secretary sometimes replies. Sometimes not. Recently, after an alarming prostate ultrasound, the doctor told me that he wanted me to have a PSA done immediately, I received an appointment notification that this routine test was scheduled EIGHTY FIVE DAYS later. I emailed the doctor, and his nurse responded, "Well, I did not make that appointment," I replied and asked if she would put in a Lab Order for me to get in ASAP. NO REPLY! They certainly did not "reach out and help".
I mentioned my frustration to my psychiatrist at Sweetgrass, and to relieve my anxiety SHE PUT IN A LAB ORDER AND I HAD THE BLOOD DRAWN WITHIN ONE HOUR on a Friday afternoon and she called me with the result SUNDAY MORNING! So, please don't complain about the lack of concern by Dr. Albright or any of the providers at Sweetgrass. It is just not true!
Goodluck trying to get an appointment with a dermatologist at MUSC. You will wait MONTHS!.
On a Sunday, I was in St. Francis's ER for a blocked urethra and could not urinate. I was temporarily "fixed" but was told to call a urologist Monday for emergency surgery or my bladder could erupt. I called and was told the first available appt was in three months!!!!
Sometimes patients undermine themselves and self-sabotage when they are desperate for medication! Make an appointment in a timely manner and you won't have any problems. "Don't make your emergency Dr. Albright's emergency! Why does anyone wa read more
