Why Time May Be the Most Important Prescription in Modern Medicine.
Think about the last time you left a doctor’s appointment feeling genuinely at ease… Not just checked off a list, but truly cared for. Your questions answered. Your concerns taken seriously. Your doctor present with you, not half-thinking about the next patient down the hall…
We live in a remarkable era of medical innovation. Diagnostics, genomics, telehealth — the tools available to physicians today would have seemed extraordinary even a decade ago. And yet the single most powerful thing a doctor can offer a patient may be something that no technology can replicate: time. Time to listen, to ask the follow-up question, to understand the full picture of who you are and how you live.
Across the country, that kind of time has become harder to come by. The average primary care visit nationally lasts just 19 minutes. But a growing number of patients are discovering what’s possible when it’s built back into the practice of medicine.
ATLANTA’S EVOLVING HEALTHCARE LANDSCAPE
As the population has grown and the demands on the healthcare system have deepened, primary care in Atlanta has been shifting toward smaller, more relationship- focused practice models centered around the belief that a physician who knows you well is a physician who can truly take care of you.
The doctors who choose this path are making a deliberate statement about what they value. They’re choosing to slow down and to build the kind of relationships that make primary care most effective, and most meaningful.
WHAT BECOMES POSSIBLE WITH MORE TIME
Every primary care physician brings skill, training, and genuine dedication to their patients. The difference time makes isn’t about effort or commitment. It’s about what becomes possible when a visit has room to breathe.
Physicians describe something they call the “second story” — the concerns a patient raises only after the stated reason for the visit has been addressed. It might be the fatigue that’s been building for months, the persistent low mood they’ve been dismissing as stress, or the family history they never thought to mention. These are often the most meaningful things a patient brings to an appointment. In a longer visit, with a physician they trust, patients raise them naturally. They have the space to. Patients notice. One described it simply: “Dr. Kelly’s secret prescription – kindness, compassion, and love sprinkled all over her vast knowledge and medical expertise.”
Longer visits also create space for something that is genuinely difficult to rush: shared decision-making. When a physician knows the full picture of your lifestyle, values, history, what’s worked and what hasn’t, the guidance they offer is tailored rather than templated, and far more likely to be something you can actually act on.
THE VALUE OF BEING TRULY KNOWN
There’s a version of primary care that many people have experienced: the physician who remembers what was worrying you six months ago and asks about it unprompted. The doctor who reaches out personally with results. The one who is entirely present and actively listening when you’re describing symptoms.
This kind of medicine isn’t just more satisfying. It’s more effective. When patients feel genuinely known by their physician, they’re more likely to be honest about their symptoms, more likely to follow through on care recommendations, and more likely to catch problems early rather than letting them grow.
Physicians benefit from this dynamic too. Doctors who practice in a model built around time and relationship often describe rediscovering the reason they went into medicine. They have room to be curious, to think carefully, to follow a thread. That engagement produces better medicine. A physician who loves what they’re doing brings something to an appointment that no amount of technology can replicate.
PIEDMONT INTERNAL MEDICINE: BUILDING A PRACTICE AROUND TIME
Led by physician and managing partner, Craig Peters, MD, Piedmont Internal Medicine has served the north Atlanta community for years, building a reputation for thoughtful, relationship-centered care. Now, seven of the practice’s physicians have moved into a concierge model and have intentionally limited their patient panel size.
For patients in the concierge program, the experience is noticeably different from the first visit and the connection extends beyond office hours. Concierge patients have their physician’s personal cell number for urgent after-hours concerns, and a dedicated phone line during business hours where a real person answers — someone who knows you. When you’re unwell, or simply uncertain, the difference between reaching a real person quickly and navigating a phone tree to leave a message is not a small one. As one patient described, “Dr. Long listens, is knowledgeable and empathetic. The wait is never long and scheduling always easy. If you need help, you can always call and they work with you.”
For patients in Buckhead and the surrounding communities, it represents something worth knowing about: a practice built around the belief that time is the foundation of quality primary care.
The concierge program is led by a group of experienced physicians who share a commitment to this more personal model of care, including Brad Harper, MD; Elizabeth Hawk, MD; Deborah Kelly, MD, FACP; Fran Long, MD; W. Cody McClatchey, MD, FACP; Craig Peters, MD; and Elizabeth Walton, MD.
Learn more at piedmontinternalmed.com
404-369-8430
3280 Howell Mill Road, West Tower Suite 150, Atlanta, GA 30327
