Meet the team of primary care providers at Physicians Urgent Care: Dr. Chandler Hardman, Dr. Taylor Bush, Mary Kathryn Lunceford, PA-C, and Gary Nardin, PA-C. With over 30 years of combined experience, they are passionate about providing expert patient care.
WHAT IS PRIMARY CARE, AND WHAT IS THE ROLE IT PLAYS IN SOMEONE’S LIFE?
Lunceford: My grandad was a “little black bag” doctor, meaning he was everything to everybody in the town where he lived. He used to say that 'An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.' That’s what primary care is - it's preventing things and addressing them early.
Hardman: The benefit of primary care is having a trained provider who can screen for disease, prevent illness, and address illnesses when they happen. One of the beauties of primary care is that the provider is expected to look at the big picture, when most of the healthcare system looks in a focused way at what’s going on at the moment.
Bush: We also help coordinate your care. It can be very difficult to keep track of everything that you need, and it quickly becomes overwhelming when you have a host of specialists. We reduce the burden on the patient by putting all of those pieces together.
HOW DO YOU ESTABLISH TRUST WITH YOUR PATIENTS?
Nardin: Make medicine easy for the patient. That’s my philosophy. Be honest and follow through with the things we discuss.
Lunceford: Listen and pay attention to what is important to the patient. I have my checklist during a visit, but I want to make sure that I’m getting to the patient’s checklist as well. It helps them to trust me when they know that the things that are important to them are also important to me.
Bush: Through shared decision making. You take what they tell you, you teach them what you know about it, then the outcome is decided on together. You present them with the information they need to make a good decision for themselves about their own health.
WHAT IS THE MOST REWARDING PART OF YOUR JOB?
Lunceford: My favorite visits are when patients come back for a follow-up after starting a medication and their whole life is different. Often, I have patients tell me “I didn’t realize I felt bad, until I felt good." It’s really gratifying to be the one who found that need and addressed it.
Bush: Working as a partner with a patient to both educate and motivate them to care for themselves. They deserve to feel better, and I want to convince them of that.
Nardin: Meeting patients, listening to their problems, and working to get them better. That’s what gets me up in the morning. I can’t tell you how many people have been thankful that I took the time to explain something to them. People just need someone to listen to them and really hear what they are saying.
HOW DO YOU NAVIGATE PATIENT CARE IN THE ERA OF GOOGLE AND WEB MD?
Hardman: There are so many useful things online that patients can use to help themselves. They just need to keep in mind that online tools can provide information, but they don’t provide judgment. They need to rely on their provider to provide judgment and direction.
Bush: I think the thing that Google misses is the harm of doing unnecessary treatments or procedures. It’s really based on education, but also staying firm with what you know is the right treatment. Don’t be dismissive but explain why you are doing what you’re doing.
WHAT ARE YOUR HOBBIES OUTSIDE OF THE CLINIC?
Nardin: I enjoy gardening, going for walks with my two dogs, and I recently got into beekeeping.
Hardman: I like reading, walking, biking, and selective shopping with my wife. We all know what that is. You know what you want, you go and get it, you leave, you go do something important.
Bush: I like spending time with my family; my fiancée and his three children. We like to travel quite a bit and I enjoy going to concerts.
Lunceford: I’m in a recreational orchestra that has a few concerts a year. I’ve only played one so far, in May. I was eight months pregnant playing violin.
PhysiciansUrgentCare.com
"That’s what primary care is - it's preventing things and addressing them early." -- Mary Kathryn Lunceford, PA-C
"You take what they tell you, you teach them what you know about it, then the final outcome is decided on together." -- Dr. Taylor Bush