Dr. Jay Parkison, and Williamsburg, Say "Hello Health"

I'm surprised that I haven't seen the low-cost "self serve" health kiosks around the city yet. Since NYS doesn't mandate coverage, these would be a great way to get inexpensive access to minimum levels of service.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen the low-cost "self serve" health kiosks around the city yet. Since NYS doesn't mandate coverage, these would be a great way to get inexpensive access to minimum levels of service.

buyer beware -- Dr. Parkinson is a pediatrician (possibly with an incomplete residency too) -- not trained to treat adults (and yet has been providing care to adults as per several articles here on gothamist and well documented throughout the web.) Ask anyone who has only an undergraduate medical education (i.e. no residency in a relevant field) if they feel comfortable treating adult patients in primary care. In my reading in comments on other boards Dr. Parkinson has replied that this is irrelevant based on the acuity of the patients in this practice. Access to healthcare for all is important, yes, but this feels a little dangerous to me.

This leech recently said on his blog that he wouldn't treat a patient who was "fat".

Then he sold out to some Canadian corporate and started cleaning up his views by secretly deleting his anti-corporate blog postings and with them my objection comments about his disrespectful attitude to overweight patients.

He's a nasty little self obsessed gold digger who can't see the point of insurance as his greed prevents him seeing insurance as anything but having to pay for others.

People should see "Goodbye Health" for what it is - a service that provides a good looking Doctor to hold your hand and encourages the young to go put off getting insured

Larry,
The vast majority of my patients will be under 21. However, a sinus infection in a 28 year old looks no different than a 21 year old with a sinus infection. A 28 year old who's had a difficult time with their health and has an early onset of diabetes and heart problems for example will be seen by Dr. Khozin. Dr. Corrigan, an ER-trained physician, will see people of all ages. I will see all children and those young adults with uncomplicated acute problems because I'm completely comfortable doing so because the focus of a training in pediatrics is uncomplicated acute problems. I am a licensed physician in NY state and this allows me to see a person of any age, but I restrict who I see based on age and type of medical problem. I'm not perfectly trained for seeing patients with an adult chronic condition and, therefore, my colleagues will see them. However, I'm perfectly trained to see a 26 year old with an ear infection. There is nothing magical that happens to your body when you turn 22 that precludes me from being well trained in acute problems in young adults. My malpractice provider has no qualms about me practicing medicine because my NY state license allows me to practice medicine. Insurance is not rated based on this. In fact, primary care of all ages has some of the lowest malpractice rates in medicine. We don't do a lot of risky, expensive procedures that markedly drive up malpractice rates. I get to decide what I am trained well in and what I have little training in. I would be doing a disservice to my clients and myself if I attempted to treat them without being well trained in what I was treating.

I am not board certified in either of my specialties because I do not believe (and the research shows) that being board certified improves outcomes for my patients and therefore makes me a better doctor. It is my ethical responsibility to stay up on the best practices and the best evidence so that I can do my job as best as I can. Again, I would be doing my clients and myself a disservice by not staying on top of the best evidence. Paying thousands to pass a multiple choice test will not make me a better doctor. In fact, octors are realizing that board certification is of no significant benefit and a waste of money without evidence to back up the fact that being board certified makes you a better doctor. There are large percentages of doctors who either choose not to take the test or choose not to take the test once their board certification expires. It simply doesn't correlate with physician quality. Keep in mind that being board certified also means that I could have scored a 99% or a 60% on a multiple choice test -- I still passed with both scores and would still be board certified. It's just a personal belief of mine. If you are not comfortable seeing a non-boarded doctor, there are plenty out there who are boarded -- like Dr. Khozin and Dr. Corrigan.
I also don't believe at all that our practice is cherry picking. I strongly believe that everyone needs a doctor no matter how healthy they are. Everyone is prone to acute problems and at risk of chronic conditions. Younger people are in fact more prone to acute problems but less prone to chronic conditions. We've set up the practice to cater to acute problems more so than chronic conditions. However, Hello Health will see patients of all ages with all matter of complexities.
If you are in the area, poke your head in the office. We can talk about this face to face if you'd like. It would be nice to meet you and I think you'd change your mind about us if you talk with us more in-depth about our practice and our philosophy. We plan on having these kinds of meet-ups in our space on a regular basis once we launch on August 11th. Both myself and Dr. Khozin are trained in Public Health and we'd like to have discussions on the current state of the healthcare system and how this personally affects you and us. It's a super interesting discussion. Keep in mind, we're also "freelancers" and responsible for finding our own health insurance so we're in the same boat as many of our neighbors here in Williamsburg. We'll be talking about the best options for health insurance in NYC amongst anything else that comes up. I hope you can come to one. Take care.

thanks for your thoughtful reply dr. parkison, and for your honesty regarding your lack of board certification in either specialty.

i don't agree with your assertion that these certifications are unnecessary; they are one of many benchmarks that helps to maintain quality in the large pool of providers in this country. any group or academic practice in this city would require board certification of their physicians -- but you're right, you're under no legal obligation to obtain certification, but should something go wrong under your care it will attract extra scrutiny.

it is reassuring though, that you will be seeing only the children and adolescents in your practice and that your partners will handle all of the adult patients.