Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Rachel O’Mara.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dr. O’Mara. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I went to Northwestern for medical school and had a scholarship through the National Health Service Corps which involves working in a medically underserved area as payback for medical school tuition. After residency at Yale for Primary Care Internal Medicine, I served the two years as an HIV doctor and internist in York, Pennsylvania. I extended my stay there for two additional years since I enjoyed it so much and became the medical director of the HIV Program. Then, I moved back to Chicago with my husband and was an internist for mostly Spanish-speaking patients and the HIV Program Director and Medical Director at Erie Family Health Center in Humboldt Park for four years. In February 2011, I left HIV medicine and started a solo practice on Northwestern Memorial Hospital campus called Streeterville Internal Medicine where I worked as a general internist. I started with no patients and quickly filled to capacity. Just recently – June 1, 2017 – I changed to a concierge medical practice and renamed the practice Rachel O’Mara, MD. The concierge model allows patients to have more time and more access than the traditional model. Patients are loving it and I am very excited about the difference in care I have already seen in the short time it has been implemented.
Has it been a smooth road?
The biggest challenge has been doing a good job and being thorough in a medical system that does not reward time spent with a patient. Insurance companies have decreased reimbursement for primary care over the years so that the way to stay afloat is to see many patients a day. Until changing to the concierge model, I was regularly working nights and weekends on documentation and behind the scenes work to make sure patients had excellent care. Now that I have more time, I see that care I can give is far better. A lot of important issues can be elicited when people are comfortably sitting in my office, rather than feeling rushed in an exam room. A lot of time can be saved when I have time to communicate with specialists and get to the heart of an issue quickly.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Rachel O’Mara, MD story. Tell us more about the business.
I am proud that patients feel listened to and receive excellent medical care. I am also proud that people who work here feel valued and challenged.
Although it is a newish trend, there are more and more concierge doctors recently in the downtown Chicago area, but there are few female ones currently.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I think concierge medicine will grow in popularity as the importance of a medical “quarterback” is realized and the current state of the country’s healthcare system is worked out.
Pricing:
- Annual membership fee is $2000
Contact Info:
- Address: 676 N. Saint Clair Street
Suite 1740
Chicago, IL 60611-2963 - Website: rachelomaramd.com
- Phone: 3129260444
- Email: dr.omara@rachelomaramd.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Streeterville-Internal-Medicine-LLC-144030462316799/
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rachel-o-mara-md-chicago
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