The Value of Being Known: Mike's Story

For Mike N., one of the great­est ben­e­fits of hav­ing a pri­ma­ry care provider isn’t sim­ply hav­ing some­one to turn to when he’s sick. It’s hav­ing some­one who knows him, under­stands his health his­to­ry, and can rec­og­nize when some­thing isn’t quite right.

He’s found that with Kait­lyn Phillips, FNP‑C, at Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG).

Over the past year, that rela­tion­ship has made a sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ence as Mike faced sev­er­al health chal­lenges — from a heart con­di­tion that required a pace­mak­er to ongo­ing issues with arthritis.

Mike has always been active and has also been proac­tive about his health. For years, he made a point of get­ting reg­u­lar phys­i­cals and stay­ing on top of rou­tine blood work. How­ev­er, over the past year, he began notic­ing changes. He was becom­ing short of breath and hav­ing more dif­fi­cul­ty mov­ing around.

“I just real­ly got worse and worse,” he said. ​“Kait­lyn fig­ured it out. She said, ​‘You might be hav­ing a heart prob­lem,’ so she imme­di­ate­ly got me down with cardiology.”

For Mike, that abil­i­ty to rec­og­nize a change and act on it is one of the most impor­tant parts of hav­ing a pri­ma­ry care provider who knows him well.

“The thing that’s real­ly been good about Kait­lyn is if she fig­ures out some­thing is going wrong, she always gets me to the right per­son,” Mike said.

Kaitlin quick­ly con­nect­ed Mike with QMG’s Car­di­ol­o­gy team, includ­ing Dr. Wis­sam Der­ian and Nurse Prac­ti­tion­er Hope Owens. After sev­er­al tests, includ­ing an EKG, MRI and stress test, Mike learned he need­ed a pace­mak­er. Dr. Der­ian per­formed the procedure.

“The whole process prob­a­bly went with­in about a week and a half or two weeks,” he said. ​“I nev­er had to sit and wait. They got right to it, and with­in a day after that, I felt like a mil­lion bucks.”

That sense of time­ly care has been con­sis­tent with Mike’s expe­ri­ence at QMG. He said he has often been able to get in to see his providers the same day or the next day when some­thing is wrong. Some­thing he doesn’t take for granted.

“I can call the very same day, say­ing, ​‘Hey, can you get here today? Can you get here tomor­row?’” he said. ​“I nev­er have to wait.”

Mike said he has friends who have had very dif­fer­ent expe­ri­ences, some­times wait­ing weeks or even months to see a doc­tor. Com­pared with those expe­ri­ences, the speed at which his care moves at QMG has stood out to him.

“I have friends in dif­fer­ent parts of the coun­try and hear their sto­ries where it takes weeks and months to get in to see a doc­tor, and that’s not the case for me,” he said.

For Mike, that access is espe­cial­ly valu­able because Kait­lyn knows his his­to­ry and can rec­og­nize when some­thing changes.

That rela­tion­ship con­tin­ued to be impor­tant as Mike dealt with anoth­er chal­lenge — wors­en­ing arthri­tis, par­tic­u­lar­ly in his back. The pain and mobil­i­ty issues made it increas­ing­ly dif­fi­cult for him to walk and stay as active as he wanted.

“Kait­lyn’s the one who real­ly looked at it, fig­ured that out and got me into the right peo­ple,” he said.

Mike worked with QMG’s ortho­pe­dic team, includ­ing Dr. Antho­ny Big­gs, to man­age his arthri­tis and address his back issues. Through­out the process, his care team helped coor­di­nate the care and test­ing he need­ed so he could keep mov­ing for­ward with­out unnec­es­sary delays.

“I have total con­fi­dence with every­body — from car­di­ol­o­gy to ortho­pe­dics,” Mike said. ​“It’s a one-stop shop, which was real­ly awesome.”

Today, Mike con­tin­ues work­ing with his care team to man­age his arthri­tis while remain­ing as active as pos­si­ble. Through each health chal­lenge, he says he has learned the impor­tance of pay­ing atten­tion to changes in his health, keep­ing up with reg­u­lar care and com­mu­ni­cat­ing with his providers.

“You’ve real­ly got to be proac­tive about your health,” Mike said. ​“Your doc­tors and every­body can’t real­ly do much for you if you’re not telling them what’s going on. QMG has the staff to be able to help you. You’ve just got to put your­self in posi­tion to let them help you.”

For Mike, hav­ing a trust­ed pri­ma­ry care provider means more than hav­ing some­one to call when he isn’t feel­ing well. It’s hav­ing some­one who knows his base­line, lis­tens when some­thing changes and helps con­nect him with the right care.

And for Mike, that rela­tion­ship with Kaitlin has made all the difference.

“Kait­lyn’s done a real­ly great job with me on that,” he said.

Every­one deserves a pri­ma­ry care provider who knows their sto­ry. Find yours at QMG and sched­ule an appoint­ment today. Vis­it us online or call our Pri­ma­ry Care Access Line at 217−222−6550, 3325.