.png)
Local Living
A community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland.
Local Living
When Your Pediatrician Answers Her Own Phone: Meet Dr. Maya Levy
Dr. Maya Levy shares her journey of founding Pediatric Wellness Concierge after 22 years in conventional medicine where appointment times shrank from 30 minutes to just 10 minutes per patient. The concierge model allows her to provide personalized care through home visits, direct phone access, and thorough examinations without insurance company interference.
• Shortening appointment times in conventional practices force doctors to focus on computers instead of patients, missing key developmental and health issues
• Concierge medicine provides direct access to the doctor via personal cell phone for same-day visits and consultations
• Home visits eliminate waiting rooms and the risk of catching additional illnesses
• Starting at around $300 monthly, concierge medicine isn't just for wealthy families
• Research shows concierge patients have fewer emergency room visits and hospitalizations
• Dr. Levy's personal experience as a mother of five children enhances her understanding of parenting challenges
• The doctor-patient relationship is stronger when the physician knows the child personally
• For complex cases, a concierge doctor can coordinate with specialists and advocate for timely appointments
If you'd like to learn more about Pediatric Wellness Concierge, visit pediatric-wellness.com, follow @PediatricWellnessConcierge on Instagram, or call Dr. Levy directly.
Local Living is a community podcast for Palm Beach to Parkland. Are You A Local Business, Resident, Leader or Non-Profit? If so, we would love to have you on the podcast!
Go to www.locallivingpodcast.com for all of the info.
Welcome everyone to Local Living. We are a community podcast from Palm Beach to Parkland. I'm David Conway, your host, and today we have Dr Maya Levy with us. Dr Levy is the founder of Pediatric Wellness Concierge and, as we all know, concierge medicine is a very hot sector right now, so we are excited to have you, doctor. Thanks for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2:I'm excited to be here, thank you. Thank you for having me. You bet, so why?
Speaker 1:don't you start out just in general terms and tell us a little bit more about Pediatric Wellness Concierge?
Speaker 2:So I started Pediatric Concierge because, well, I've been a doctor for about 22 years now and over the lifespan of being a physician, our visits went from, you know, 30 minutes. You know, before I even started they were 45 minutes, then 30 minutes, went down to 20 minutes, 15 minutes and now I found myself just seeing patients every 10 minutes and I just didn't feel like that was proper medicine. I felt like I was shortchanging all my patients. I wasn't satisfied at the end of the day and I felt like my patients were leaving the clinic not satisfied and I just said there has to be an alternative. We cannot keep doing this.
Speaker 2:I also found myself constantly needing to answer to the insurance companies instead of answering to my patients. So I would order an MRI and the insurance, you know, nope, not authorized. Why are you not who? I'm the doctor? I've done this 22 years. I'm seeing the patient. Who are you to say the patient does not need an MRI? And so I was just getting frustrated with fighting with the insurance companies and I just said this is not fair. This is not why I went into medicine and I found this concept of concierge medicine and I'd already kind of been doing private medicine on the side with people that knew me, people that followed me from other clinics, and so I started this concierge practice and I have to tell you I love it. I love it. I think it's amazing. I'm happier, my patients are happier. I really think it's the future of medicine.
Speaker 1:I really really do so it's not just the patients that are frustrated out there, and many times it's the doctors also.
Speaker 2:Of course, the burnout of physicians has increased dramatically over the last 20 years. Doctors are being burned out, they're going into other sectors, going into administration. They're tired and the patients are tired and fed up and it's just. I really feel it's going in the wrong direction.
Speaker 1:So were you, I'm sorry. Were you part of a large pediatric group or did you work?
Speaker 2:I've always been a part of a large pediatric group. So I did a residency and then I did a pulmonary fellowship at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles and then, right before I even finished my fellowship, I got in, you know, a headhunter found me and I went into a big, you know, conglomerate medical practice group which was at the time. I loved it because I did have some time with my patients. I was new, I didn't know anything else, um, but you know, over the years I've, you know, I worked there for about 10 years. Then I worked somewhere else for and I've just always worked in an outpatient setting. I'll do hospital visits for newborns, a little bit of hospital care when, when my patients needed it, but it was mostly outpatient care.
Speaker 2:And working in an outpatient setting has just the quality of care, in my opinion, has significantly decreased. I was working in an office where I was the only physician. There were three or four nurse practitioners working under me and it was just me there and I just felt like, you know, when they had questions of course they would have questions I found myself okay, how am I? Am I going to answer her question or am I going to take care of my patient or am I? You know? You know, it was just very busy and not satisfying for anyone, not for the providers and not for the patients.
Speaker 1:So and we've all felt that, you know, like cattle at some point, and some of these medical practices was this was this a gradual change? I mean, did you notice a quick acceleration at any point, or how did this transpire over the years? It was gradual.
Speaker 2:Over the years from 30 minute visits to 25 to 20 to 15. And now they say you have 15 minutes but then they double book you. So then that's five patients to six patients every hour. So that comes out to about 10 to 12 minutes per patient. That gives you 10 to 12 minutes not to be in the room. That's 10 to 12 minutes to get in the patient's chart, look at their history, send the medication, check the patient, talk to the mom, write the note.
Speaker 2:And, of course, insurance companies now want you to write all these things in the note, like doesn't have shortness of breath. I mean he's coming in for sore throat, but I have to say he doesn't have shortness of breath, because what if the patient comes back and says you know whatever? Or what if? So there's so many different regulations on the doctor now that we find ourselves constantly just looking at the computer instead of looking at our patients, instead of getting to know them. So we're missing all those kids with speech delay and we're missing all those kids that have emotional or anxiety issues. We're missing those ADHD kids that are not hyperactive, because we're not really looking at the child anymore.
Speaker 2:And I just this is not good medicine. I want to be able to sit with my patient, take a look at him and, you know, sometimes, many times now, I'll find things that the parents, you know, didn't even think about, like wait, you know, I'm noticing that he the parents, you know, didn't even think about, like wait, you know, I'm noticing that he's always, you know, using this arm. Does he use that arm? Do we need to start physical therapy? What's going on? You know, there's things that you'll notice if you have time to look at your patient, and I find that doctors today in regular outpatient settings are looking at their computer and not at their patient.
Speaker 1:So to a family out there with a young child. What does concierge medicine mean to them? How does it all work? Is it a monthly fee? Do they pay per visit? Do they have access to you directly? How does that work?
Speaker 2:So every concierge doctor works a little bit differently. The overall concept is it's a membership model. Now I also do urgent care, so I will see as needed. So I'll see patients on an urgent care basis. I had a mother call me, you know, just this morning. You know, hey, you know, my kid's got a fever. I, you know there's no appointments available. His doctor's, you know, going to be seeing him in two days.
Speaker 2:I want to see what's going on today, cause he just had a pneumonia. Is it back or not? Can you come by? And so of course I don't know the patient. So I just get a little history, I go. I sat there 30, 40 minutes, got to know the family and the patient diagnosed him. Yet he did end up having a pneumonia, gave him the right treatment.
Speaker 2:I have access to medicine, though, that many of the clinics don't even have, so I was able to swab him. Now that I'm thinking of it, I swabbed him for a conglomerate of different, like a PCR swab that can check for bacterial pneumonias, viral pneumonias, like what does he really have, so that I don't have to just say blindly okay, it sounds like pneumonia, let's treat it. I can really know and I'll have the results tomorrow morning. What antibiotic is the best for what he has? Does he even need an antibiotic? Is it a viral? Is it COVID? Is it flu? Is it RSV, what is it? And then the treatment is tailored towards that and the treatment is much better because now my patient is going to improve much quicker, go back to school much quicker and the mom will be happier go back to work. So it's access. So, going back to the question, it's more access to your doctor. It's more personalized medicine.
Speaker 2:It's usually a membership where you pay a yearly or monthly fee and you get access to me or to whatever doctor you're signing up with. It's usually you have my cell phone. I'm there for you just to, sometimes just to chat like hey, he's not eating. Well, you know this week, what do you have any suggestions to? Things like oh, you know what? You know there's lots of things.
Speaker 2:And so they have access to the doctor. They don't go, have to go through a medical you know triage system, they don't have to leave a message and I'll call them back, you know, one or two days later. And so you pay for having that access. It's much cheaper than it used to be, so a lot of parents always have that misconception that you know it's only for the wealthy. It's not, and a lot of parents I have, a lot of patients that are not on the wealthy side that just decide that health is. You know their kids deserve the best and so, instead of, you know, paying a monthly membership to the gym, they're going to pay a monthly membership to their doctor and go walk. You know.
Speaker 1:So with pediatric wellness concierge, when you say they have access to the doctor, you mean they have your cell phone number, so they're not calling and answering service. They're calling Dr Maya Levy.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. So the mom that called this morning she I, it was me. Hi, it's Dr Levy. How can I help, you know? Oh my gosh, this is the doctor. Yes, hi, how can I help? So you know, it's very weird for some patients.
Speaker 1:What a comfort, though. What a comfort.
Speaker 2:Oh it's, it's amazing comfort. It's. It's so hard to explain it. I think the best way is to talk to someone who sees a concierge doctor and they'll be able to explain to you the benefits, because it's a lot of times it's hard to explain until you really see it.
Speaker 1:And I'm sure you do a lot of virtual visits, but I think you said you went to the home today, so you do actual house.
Speaker 2:I only do home visits.
Speaker 2:I do have an office in Boca, and so I will only use that office. Usually some parents don't want to do shots in their house, and so we'll do the vaccines and the office, but most of my visits are home visits. I come see the patient at the house. You don't have to dress them up and schlep them and wait in traffic and wait for an appointment and wait in the waiting room. I come to you. So it's a great convenience and it's a comfort to a lot of parents, a lot.
Speaker 1:So I want to get to know you just a little better, doctor. So tell us a little bit more about your background, growing up, your medical training. Did you always know you wanted to be a doctor?
Speaker 2:That's a funny question. I am one of those weird people that did not always knew. So I would say, maybe when I was in my early teens, maybe I was 10, 12, 13. We were on a bus ride, believe it or not. We were on vacation in Israel, of all places, and we were on our way to the Dead Sea. And we were on a bus like a, you know, a tour bus, and there was a huge accident on the road. And the road to the Dead Sea it's it's a very, very steep road in the middle of a desert where there's nothing, nothing, miles and miles and miles away, and there was a very bad accident and the bus driver, of course, stopped and asked if there was a doctor, because you know medical help would take.
Speaker 2:This was I don't know how long, more than probably 30 years ago. It wasn't so you know, you couldn't like not everybody had a cell phone. The doctor, you know there was. No, it was very different. And I, when I heard that and I saw the accident and I saw everyone trying to help people and no one knew what they were doing, everyone was all over the place and the poor people lying on the floor and I just said, one day I'm going to say, yes, I'm here, I'm going to help.
Speaker 2:And since then that was my path. I decided I was going to be a doctor. And so since then, you know, and I was always a person who liked to enjoy life, I always like a balance in life, so I was like a partier and I had to. I always had fun. And so when I told my parents I want to be a doctor, they said you, okay, I'm like, well, I get straight A's. Yeah, you get straight A's because we make you get straight A's, but you want to be a doctor. So it was very funny for them, but it was just.
Speaker 2:Since then, that was my thing and I love it and I love doing it. I didn't go into it for money or for the glamour. I love and enjoy doing the best. I feel so good, I really feel, you know. They say we're selfless. No, I'm selfish, because when I help someone, it helps me, I feel good and so I love it. So I, you know, yes, I always knew I wanted to be a doctor.
Speaker 2:Um, I went um into medical school. Uh, I was thinking about surgery. I wanted to be a surgeon, initially trauma surgeon. But there is no quality of life for trauma surgeons. They're on 24-7 in the operating room and to be good you have to be hospital-based. That's why I initially did pulmonary ICU. I was thinking maybe I'll do pediatric pulmonary ICU in my fellowship, but I saw that it's a hospital-based job and I have five kids. I have five amazing children. I have a husband medical book.
Speaker 2:Every kid is different and I think you know, as an, when you're a doctor initially and you tell parents just give him the medicine and the mom would come and say he's throwing it up or he refuses or he can't take it, I'd be like who's the parent Give it to him? You can't, your kid is too small. I didn't understand that, you know. And then my second child didn't take medication, would throw up every time. So all of a sudden I saw this other side to what all the parents you know or I had a kid that didn't sleep at night, or I had a kid that doesn't eat, like I had it all. I've experienced it firsthand and so I think it really taught me a lot more about medicine than anything else. Well, that's my, you know, I, I, I have kids. I've done, I've done this for 20 something years Plus, I think, like I always say, that my kids were my biggest tutors.
Speaker 1:That's fantastic, and so can you tell us, are there any myths or misconceptions that people may have about concierge medicine before they call you the first time?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So the myth is well, it's for the wealthy, it's not for the wealthy. We have memberships from like $300 a month and for you know, and you're paying for that preventative care, your children are going to be a lot less likely to go to the emergency room and to be hospitalized. There's a lot of statistics now that show that concierge patients have less heart attacks as adults, have less hospitalizations, have less ER visits, and so when you're thinking in the long run, all the co-pays you're going to be paying if your child is hospitalized and in the ER, you're spreading it out and you're preventing that trauma to the child, you're preventing that hospitalization and you're just paying for it beforehand, kind of on a monthly. And so it's not just for the wealthy.
Speaker 2:Another misconception is that we only see, you know, not very sick patients. So a lot of people that have you know I have a kid with cystic fibrosis. You know parents are like, oh, you know, we didn't know. You know we, can you take care? I'm like, of course I can take care of a child with a chronic illness and very complex patients.
Speaker 2:A lot of my patients end up being complex patients because they need me to get in a hold of the specialist which many times they can't get a hold of. Their appointment is six months out but their symptoms are now. So I can pick up the phone to their you know specialist or their ENT, to their weather, and say, hey, let's get this one in today or can you get them in this week Because he's really having symptoms. So that doctor to doctor communication and so that misconception that we don't take care of very sick people is wrong. We take care of them and I think we take care of them better than the conventional system because we can prevent them from needing those hospitalizations and all those ER visits. And so those are my two biggest misconceptions I find.
Speaker 1:And my thought process was you're really just paying for peace of mind, which obviously has value. But it's not just peace of mind, there's actual medical benefit.
Speaker 2:There's data out there. If you look, you know every study is a little bit different. But when you look at the overall patient that is taking care of primary care, concierge medicine, conventional the percentages have mostly been done on adults. Now, um, is, you know, lower chances of MI? Because you are seeing your doctor? He is checking your fitness, he's checking your fat level. He's saying, hey, we're, you know, we've got some red flags here. He's not just seeing you for 10 minutes giving you a refill on your cardiac meds or on your high blood pressure meds and you're out the office. He's seeing you and he's seeing you as soon as the symptoms start. He's not saying, oh, I'll see you in three days or I'll see you in two weeks, where, okay, your MI has already progressed by the time you see the doctor. So you're preventing, you're really giving yourself. I think it's due diligence for yourself and for your health. I think everyone, I think this medicine needs to be for everyone. I really do.
Speaker 1:You know what really crystallized it for me. You know we've all well as parents out there, we've all had that feeling when your kid's sick and you never feel more powerless, you never feel more helpless as a parent than when you watch your child suffering. And you know, we've all made that call to the doctor, to the pediatrician. We couldn't get our kid in. They didn't just oh, bring them on in. That's not the answer. We got the fact that they can call you and they get the same day visit and it's me.
Speaker 2:It's not a nurse practitioner, it's not some other provider that doesn't know your child, it's me. I know your child and he knows me, so he's more likely to let me check him and to feel comfortable when I'm checking him. It's, and he's not going to go and catch some other illness in the waiting room, so he's not going to be sick next week just because he came in for this illness this week. There's a huge benefit to having those home visits.
Speaker 1:So, doctor, how can how people, how can they reach you?
Speaker 2:So Pediatric Wellness Concierge by Dr Levy. They can search it on the internet. Pediatric Wellness Concierge on Instagram. So at Pediatric Wellness Concierge, or call me. I'm all over, they can call myself if they're interested. They can email us through our website, which is pediatric-wellnesscom, and we're there. We're always happy. I get lots of inquiries and we usually answer right away or within a couple hours. I have an amazing office manager, Carmel, and everybody loves her. She's my biggest fan. I take care of her kids and she, you know she's amazing and she'll get me on the phone with you right away.
Speaker 1:Doctor, listening to you has been an amazing testimonial for the entire industry. I really appreciate you.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I love what I do. I really do and I really think it's the future of medicine. We all deserve the best healthcare we really do.
Speaker 1:Well, thanks again, doctor, and thanks to all of you out there for listening. Once again, I'm David Conway, your host of Local Living, and we look forward to having you back real soon.