Doctors Care off critical list...
and well on the road to better health
Sun, Nov. 26, 2006
By Ben Werner bwerner@thestate.com
Dr. Tommy Gibbons, Midlands regional medical director for Doctors Care, examines a patient’s hip flexibility at the West Columbia office on Sunset Boulevard. Doctors Care is approaching its 25th year of operation.
Photo: Lindsay Semple/lsemple@thestate.com
Dr. Michael Stout remembers when his patients at Doctors Care used to ask where his “real office” was.
That was 1983, when Columbia-based Doctors Care was only two years old and the notion of getting urgent care anywhere other than a hospital emergency room was still novel to South Carolina and the health care industry.
A native of Rhode Island, Stout was just starting his career and suspects those patients were curious about where he located his private practice. Some even thought he could be their primary physician.
Doctors Care now has a quarter-century of tending to the urgent health needs of South Carolinians, and patients increasingly consider each of the 33 locations also as a primary care provider housing their physicians’ “real office.”
Stout, after being promoted several times as the company expanded, eventually swapped his physician’s white lab coat for the sports jacket preferred by Doctors Care executives.
Today, he actually has a “real office” — that of chief executive of Doctors Care and the related publicly traded management company UCI Medical Affiliates. UCI runs Doctors Care and other affiliates, including physical therapy, pediatrics, orthopedics and wellness facilities.
UCI runs the administrative arm of each Doctors Care practice, providing such services as billing, strategic planning and staffing. Physicians are technically self employed, but UCI makes sure they are paid.
Stout has held the chief executive post for four years. During that time, with the help of chief financial officer Jerry Wells, he has managed the remarkable recovery of Doctors Care — itself in need of urgent care, financially speaking, in the early 2000s.
SATISFIED CUSTOMERS
In 2002 the company’s financial position was not strong. The company emerged from bankruptcy protection in August, but still owed money to various creditors.
Management expenses especially had to be cut. Stout and Wells both assumed several different jobs.
But Stout never forgot those patients who might have thought of making appointments to visit their Doctors Care physicians.
“Four years ago, Jerry and I were put in charge,” Stout said. “At that time, 30 percent of our patients were already return patients.”
Stout said the Doctors Care staff thought this loyalty could be expanded and leveraged to help solidify the company’s base.
The idea was simple: Keep the walk-in medical care provider identity, but offer a limited number of appointments to patients.
Offering appointments accomplished two goals —physicians could provide follow-up care to patients while the company built up a relationship with them and their families.
Today, Stout said, about half the Doctors Care appointments are made by regular customers — people who consider Doctors Care not simply as a service to use after hours and on weekends, but as their primary physician.
“When somebody has an experience with Doctors Care, they typically will come back,” Stout said.
To capitalize on these growing relationships with patients, Doctors Care also has branched out into non-urgent-care services. The company runs centers for such specialties as physical therapy, pediatrics, orthopedics and wellness.
But this expansion is best described as slow and measured. Stout said roll-out of these centers will occur only after company leaders are confident of the demand.
INCREASING DEMAND
The development of Doctors Care wellness and orthopedic centers, though, was based on local demand for these services in Columbia, said Tim Vaughn, chief financial officer of BlueChoice Healthplan, a wholly-owned subsidiary of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina — Doctors Care’s largest investor.
BlueCross BlueShield owns about 69 percent of UCI Medical’s outstanding shares. Four of the seven UCI Medical board members represent BlueCross BlueShield.
Vaughn, who is also a member of the Doctors Care board of directors, said the health care industry was marked by an emphasis on expansion during the late 1990s.
Doctors Care got caught up in the craze, paying nearly $18 million in cash, stock and debt for an Atlanta-based physicians group without doing enough research into what was being bought.
“We were afraid if we didn’t expand really fast, we’d be left behind,” Wells said.
The cost of trying to run — then closing — several Atlanta-area centers ultimately proved too much for Doctors Care to recoup. The company filed for bankruptcy in November 2001.
“It took 18 months to get over that hump,” Wells said.
That is why Doctors Care now is slowly rolling out new services, Vaughn said.
So far, there has been a demand in the Columbia market. Wellness centers are popular, Vaughn said, because “a lot of people don’t want to go to a hospital and don’t feel comfortable in a gym.”
When considering the future of Doctors Care, Stout said he is happy with the direction of the company — which still focuses on his specialty of emergency medicine but can now offer more medical services.
“Early on, we were known for just urgent care,” Stout said. “Now we’re known more as family care.”
Reach Werner at (803) 771-8509.
Chief doctor believed Doctors Care,
like his patients, could recover
Emergency medicine is Dr. Michael Stout’s medical background.
When he became the chief executive of Doctors Care four years ago, the company had just emerged from bankruptcy, but was still hobbled with debt.
Stout remembers talking with Jerry Wells, chief financial officer, about Doctors Care’s financial condition.
“We had a conversation,” Stout said. Each asked the other, “Why did you stay through this?”
For Stout, the answer was simple. Like the patients he treated when he first joined the Columbia-based urgent care provider in 1983, Doctors Care itself was sick, but could recover with immediate attention.
Stout didn’t think Doctors Care’s fiscal woes needed to be life threatening. He believed in the basic concept of providing urgent care and he is not one who shies away from tough choices.
Indeed, Stout did not even choose to become a physician until he was already married and the father of two — hardly the easiest time to hit the books and suffer through a residency.
Stout’s second job after graduating from Boston College in 1968 was that of a middle school teacher in his native Rhode Island. His first job was a tour of duty in Vietnam with the U.S. Army.
But after teaching for five years, Stout wanted something more out of life. He went to medical school as a thirtysomething student.
And when it was time to look for a job, instead of choosing the conventional path — setting up a private practice — he joined Doctors Care. In 1983, Doctors Care was still something new in health care: the free-standing urgent care provider.
Stout doesn’t treat patients anymore, but in his heart, he remains an emergency medicine physician.
“I love it, and I miss it.”
Key dates in doctors care history
1981 — The first Doctors Care office opens in Columbia.
1982 — UCI Medical Affiliates is incorporated to run the administrative side of Doctors Care and other affiliated health care centers. UCI is a publicly traded company.
1985 — Dr. Michael Stout starts working for Doctors Care as a physician.
1998 — May: Doctors Care spends about $38 million in cash, stock and assuming debt to buy Atlanta-based medical practice MainStreet Healthcare Inc.
1998 — Oct. 20: UCI Medical’s stock delisted by the Nasdaq exchange.
2001 — Nov. 2: UCI Medical files for bankruptcy.
2002 — Aug. 8: UCI Medical emerges from bankruptcy.
2002 — Nov. 1: Dr. Michael Stout becomes chief executive of Doctors Care.
2006 — Doctors Wellness Center, a 5,000 square-foot exercise and physical therapy center opens in Columbia.
About Doctors Care
• Headquarters: Columbia
• 2005 revenue: $56.6 million
• 2005 profit: $7.5 million
• Employees: more than 800
• Locations: 50 total; 34 are Doctors Care centers
• Columbia locations: 20, including urgent care, physical therapy, orthopedic care, pediatric care and a wellness center.