HOLLI W. HAYNIE

Priority of the Patient

Growing up in Salisbury, North Carolina, Jeff Warren, MD, remembers how his local doctor took care of many of the people in his town. With only one high school in four counties, and 23,000 residents, his family physician was the definition of a small town doctor.

"I always wanted to be a doctor like that," said Warren, founder of Primary Care Specialists, Inc.

His ultimate motivation is to help people, something he shares with the other physicians in the practice.

"We really like taking care of patients and want to do the best care," Warren said.

His staff of physicians is quite diverse. Between the six physicians, there is a Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Confucius Buddhist, a Hindu and a Muslim. The topics for discussion are never boring, and their bond for taking care of patients, Warren said, is universal.

Through the years, the evolution of healthcare thinking has moved toward prevention. Primary care doctors are on the front line, giving them the opportunity to reach out to patients on a more frequent basis.

"We want everybody in the family to be healthy, from the cradle to the nursing home," he said.

Warren offers a specific perspective for men's health, an area of healthcare that he said is one of his biggest challenges. From about age 18 to 40, men are on auto pilot and not paying close attention to health maintenance. Warren is always working to get through to his male patients about making time for exercise. With the amount of morbidly obese people in Memphis, he said, it's a necessity to stay on top of it.

"Family doctors are like a mechanic – changing the oil every 3,000 miles," he said. "As primary care physicians, we can encourage people to lower their weight and (ultimately) live longer."

"It's never too late to start (taking care of yourself)," he added. "I know about this particular subject because it happened to me. I realized I had to schedule that time and I don't let anyone take it from me."

Warren also urges the importance for patients to know their family history and believes in calculating the role of family history, social history and habits into a patient's health analysis.

Originally in med school for primary care, Warren veered toward anesthesia because he was aiming for the Public Health Corps. But he came full circle, he said, because the government changed the rules and he had to choose family medicine to enroll in the Corps.

"God puts you where he wants you," he said.

Warren spent three years in New York at Queens General for the Corps where he was an emergency medicine intern. This is where his education really kicked in as he learned valuable lessons about interacting with patients, on every level. The key, he said, is to remember they are human.

"You can't get mad at a patient because he's not perfect, because you're not perfect," Warren maintained. "You are the giver of the message, they are the receiver. You can't make a patient do anything."

After Queens General, he took a year off with his wife, to backpack around the world. He spent most of his time in India and Nepal where he did some clinical work. After that enlightening experience, Warren returned to New York and completed his ER residency, working nights and weekends as a surgical attending in an urban hospital. 

The family moved to Memphis in 1988 where Warren accepted a position at Baptist Memorial Health Care, then he founded Primary Care Specialists, Inc. in 1992 and has been there ever since.

Warren received an undergraduate degree in sociology from Yale University and went to Duke University for med school, where he met his wife, who is from Memphis. In his spare time he coaches kids' soccer and sits on the Memphis City School Board. An active member of the community, he participates in community health initiatives, and is proud to have all of his kids in public schools.

Creating a bond with his patients is a universal trait within his practice. From his days with the Public Health Corps where he treated heroin addicts and everything in between, to his family practice today, Warren remembers how patients have come and gone from his life. Sometimes he's gotten through to them, and sometimes he hasn't, but he never stops trying.

"You're not their mother. You just encourage them," he insisted. "You never know who you're going to reach so you have to try to reach everyone."

Primary care has long been facing challenges and Warren knows it's not an easy road. Both family medicine and internal medicine continue to face dwindling numbers, which, Warren said, will continue to slide unless something changes with reimbursement.  In the mean time, he soldiers on at his practice and within the community for improved health through prevention.