Med-Peds is a shortened term for “Combined Internal Medicine & Pediatrics”.
A physician trained in Med-Peds can care for the newborn to the geriatric patient.
Med-Peds physicians tend to the care of patients throughout their life span. Caring for multiple generations of the same family requires an understanding of family dynamics, epidemiology and the impact of acute or chronic illness at all ages, all in the context of family systems.
Linda DeCesare, MD, is here to explain how Med-Peds physicians draw from the knowledge and skills of pediatricians and internists to bring breadth and flexibility in their approach to clinical medicine.
The Benefits of Having a Med-Peds Trained Physician
Featured Speaker:
Learn more about Linda DeCesare, MD
Linda DeCesare, MD
Linda DeCesare, MD, specialties include Internal Medicine and Pediatrics at Hendricks Regional Health Medical Group.Learn more about Linda DeCesare, MD
Transcription:
The Benefits of Having a Med-Peds Trained Physician
Melanie Cole (Host): We're all looking for the best of all worlds when we're looking for a good provider. My guest today is Dr. Linda Decesare. She's a physician at Hendricks Regional Health. Welcome to the show, Dr. Decesare. I'd like to talk today about the benefits of a med-peds trained physician. For starters, what is that?
Dr. Linda Decesare (Guest): So, a med-peds physician is trained in both internal medicine, which is primary care for adults, and pediatrics which is primary care for children. So, we get trained in both of those fields just like someone who would be an internist does just internal medicine or someone who is going to be a pediatrician just does pediatrics; we actually are training in both of those fields at the same time.
Melanie: So, does it make it so that you can treat the entire family or what used to be called your family physician?
Dr. Decesare: So, it does. It means I can take care of people from birth until death--all age ranges and whole families together. It's similar to family practice or family practitioner and they are out there, too. Their training is a just a little bit different than ours.
Melanie: How would someone go about checking out a med-peds physician? What are they even looking for?
Dr. Decesare: Most people come to me looking for either a primary care physician for their children or a primary care physician for themselves and they happen to find that I take care of both and some people are looking for a family physician. What becomes a little bit tricky is that some insurance companies will list us only under one category, so sometimes we may be listed only as a pediatrician and sometimes only as an internal medicine physician, which can make it a little tricky to find us sometimes because people know we take care of all ages, but their insurance may only list us under one category. The combined med-peds practice in the world of medicine is actually fairly new. A lot of people still aren't familiar with what it is, even insurance companies.
Melanie: We'll get into insurance in a bit, but as far as being a physician, pediatricians are on call. You know, parents have all these nightmare scenarios. They're calling you at four o'clock in the morning. Is that any different as a med-peds or do you have a certain rotation schedule that you want people to know about?
Dr. Decesare: We definitely still get calls about those questions for kids in the middle of the night, also for adults in the middle of the night that aren't sure what they need to do for their symptoms. In our practice, there's nine of us in the group, so we definitely rotate who's on call. My partners will cover for my patients and I'll cover for theirs, but it's nice that there's always one of us that's available if somebody has a concern.
Melanie: Where insurance is concerned, if the lines get a little bit blurry when somebody is looking for a doc such as yourself, what do they submit to their insurance company as far as, you know, your credentials, as it were?
Dr. Decesare: As far as credentialing goes, we're credentialed to see all ages, so it doesn't usually become a problem with billing, it's more just when you're actually looking for a physician to start with and, you know, you usually will look through the specific category of what you're looking for, so it may be hard to find our names under that category, even though, once we bill for that service, it's usually not a problem.
Melanie: As a pediatrician, you're dealing with kids and then their anxious parents. How do you separate the fact that their parents may be your patient as well and maybe you'd like to treat them for anxiety when they're helicopter parenting?
Dr. Decesare: Right, and sometimes it's hard to separate that line, but one thing that is nice about seeing kids and their parents is that I feel like I can bring that up with them and ask them if they need help, if there's something that they think they could do better with, if it's something I can help them with. Even in families where I only see the kids and don't see the adults, we can recognize those things, being an adult physician as well, and I often will encourage my patients to talk to their own provider if it's not me.
Melanie: What about teenagers, doctor? Have you ever had an issue where teenagers don't want to see the same doctor their parents are seeing?
Dr. Decesare: I do have that happen and a lot of times in our practice, when children become teenagers, especially if they're female and they've been seeing one of my male partners, they may want to switch to a female provider because it's more comfortable talking with that. In our practice, we do try to allow that for comfort level for the patient's sake.
Melanie: I think it's a wonderful way to get a medical home situation going. What do you tell prospective patients that come to you and ask about all of this, about that whole medical home situation?
Dr. Decesare: I definitely tell them I think it's great in our practice that it definitely feels like a medical home because we can take care of the whole family and even if the whole family isn't seeing one provider, because we're all close together, we communicate very well with each other. Even for urgent visits and things, when I may not be there and somebody needs to be seen by one of my partners, we very much communicate with each other and say, you know, "Hey, I saw your patient for this yesterday and I just want to make sure that you follow up on that," so it definitely makes it nice to have such a big group that all takes care of everybody because it really is a medical home.
Melanie: Well, it certainly is, and is there ever any issue, Doctor, with, you know, the woman brings in her son or her daughter, but then she stops you in the hall, and says, "You know what? I have a sore throat, too. Can you look at my throat?" I can't do that with my pediatrician, obviously, because she's just a pediatrician for me.
Dr. Decesare: Right. That happens all the time and we definitely will see kids and adults at the same time for sicknesses or even one's there for a checkup and the other ones' sick and we do it all at the same time. It's nice and I think it's very great for families to have that opportunity so that if the whole family is sick, they aren't making multiple trips to more than one doctor. They can all just kind of "one stop shopping" so to speak.
Melanie: I think that's incredible I applaud all the great work that you're doing. In the last few minutes, kind of wrap it up for us and explain to people about a med-peds trained physician and why they should come to Hendricks Regional Health for their care.
Dr. Decesare: So, what I think is great about med-peds physicians is that we are definitely trained to see children and adults and we are comfortable taking care of all ages and complex medical problems, and we love to see families. What I love about the practice I'm in at Hendricks is that we all help each other out and work well together and also that we have a wonderful hospital system. I never have qualms about sending patients to anybody within our system or to the hospital when they need care. They're very supportive of our practice, in particular, and that really means a lot when you're dealing with people's well-being.
Melanie: It certainly does and what a wonderful medical home that you've set up there at Hendricks Regional Health. Thanks so much for being with us today, Dr. Decesare. You're listening to Health Talks with HRH. For more information, you can go to hendricks.org. That's hendricks.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.
The Benefits of Having a Med-Peds Trained Physician
Melanie Cole (Host): We're all looking for the best of all worlds when we're looking for a good provider. My guest today is Dr. Linda Decesare. She's a physician at Hendricks Regional Health. Welcome to the show, Dr. Decesare. I'd like to talk today about the benefits of a med-peds trained physician. For starters, what is that?
Dr. Linda Decesare (Guest): So, a med-peds physician is trained in both internal medicine, which is primary care for adults, and pediatrics which is primary care for children. So, we get trained in both of those fields just like someone who would be an internist does just internal medicine or someone who is going to be a pediatrician just does pediatrics; we actually are training in both of those fields at the same time.
Melanie: So, does it make it so that you can treat the entire family or what used to be called your family physician?
Dr. Decesare: So, it does. It means I can take care of people from birth until death--all age ranges and whole families together. It's similar to family practice or family practitioner and they are out there, too. Their training is a just a little bit different than ours.
Melanie: How would someone go about checking out a med-peds physician? What are they even looking for?
Dr. Decesare: Most people come to me looking for either a primary care physician for their children or a primary care physician for themselves and they happen to find that I take care of both and some people are looking for a family physician. What becomes a little bit tricky is that some insurance companies will list us only under one category, so sometimes we may be listed only as a pediatrician and sometimes only as an internal medicine physician, which can make it a little tricky to find us sometimes because people know we take care of all ages, but their insurance may only list us under one category. The combined med-peds practice in the world of medicine is actually fairly new. A lot of people still aren't familiar with what it is, even insurance companies.
Melanie: We'll get into insurance in a bit, but as far as being a physician, pediatricians are on call. You know, parents have all these nightmare scenarios. They're calling you at four o'clock in the morning. Is that any different as a med-peds or do you have a certain rotation schedule that you want people to know about?
Dr. Decesare: We definitely still get calls about those questions for kids in the middle of the night, also for adults in the middle of the night that aren't sure what they need to do for their symptoms. In our practice, there's nine of us in the group, so we definitely rotate who's on call. My partners will cover for my patients and I'll cover for theirs, but it's nice that there's always one of us that's available if somebody has a concern.
Melanie: Where insurance is concerned, if the lines get a little bit blurry when somebody is looking for a doc such as yourself, what do they submit to their insurance company as far as, you know, your credentials, as it were?
Dr. Decesare: As far as credentialing goes, we're credentialed to see all ages, so it doesn't usually become a problem with billing, it's more just when you're actually looking for a physician to start with and, you know, you usually will look through the specific category of what you're looking for, so it may be hard to find our names under that category, even though, once we bill for that service, it's usually not a problem.
Melanie: As a pediatrician, you're dealing with kids and then their anxious parents. How do you separate the fact that their parents may be your patient as well and maybe you'd like to treat them for anxiety when they're helicopter parenting?
Dr. Decesare: Right, and sometimes it's hard to separate that line, but one thing that is nice about seeing kids and their parents is that I feel like I can bring that up with them and ask them if they need help, if there's something that they think they could do better with, if it's something I can help them with. Even in families where I only see the kids and don't see the adults, we can recognize those things, being an adult physician as well, and I often will encourage my patients to talk to their own provider if it's not me.
Melanie: What about teenagers, doctor? Have you ever had an issue where teenagers don't want to see the same doctor their parents are seeing?
Dr. Decesare: I do have that happen and a lot of times in our practice, when children become teenagers, especially if they're female and they've been seeing one of my male partners, they may want to switch to a female provider because it's more comfortable talking with that. In our practice, we do try to allow that for comfort level for the patient's sake.
Melanie: I think it's a wonderful way to get a medical home situation going. What do you tell prospective patients that come to you and ask about all of this, about that whole medical home situation?
Dr. Decesare: I definitely tell them I think it's great in our practice that it definitely feels like a medical home because we can take care of the whole family and even if the whole family isn't seeing one provider, because we're all close together, we communicate very well with each other. Even for urgent visits and things, when I may not be there and somebody needs to be seen by one of my partners, we very much communicate with each other and say, you know, "Hey, I saw your patient for this yesterday and I just want to make sure that you follow up on that," so it definitely makes it nice to have such a big group that all takes care of everybody because it really is a medical home.
Melanie: Well, it certainly is, and is there ever any issue, Doctor, with, you know, the woman brings in her son or her daughter, but then she stops you in the hall, and says, "You know what? I have a sore throat, too. Can you look at my throat?" I can't do that with my pediatrician, obviously, because she's just a pediatrician for me.
Dr. Decesare: Right. That happens all the time and we definitely will see kids and adults at the same time for sicknesses or even one's there for a checkup and the other ones' sick and we do it all at the same time. It's nice and I think it's very great for families to have that opportunity so that if the whole family is sick, they aren't making multiple trips to more than one doctor. They can all just kind of "one stop shopping" so to speak.
Melanie: I think that's incredible I applaud all the great work that you're doing. In the last few minutes, kind of wrap it up for us and explain to people about a med-peds trained physician and why they should come to Hendricks Regional Health for their care.
Dr. Decesare: So, what I think is great about med-peds physicians is that we are definitely trained to see children and adults and we are comfortable taking care of all ages and complex medical problems, and we love to see families. What I love about the practice I'm in at Hendricks is that we all help each other out and work well together and also that we have a wonderful hospital system. I never have qualms about sending patients to anybody within our system or to the hospital when they need care. They're very supportive of our practice, in particular, and that really means a lot when you're dealing with people's well-being.
Melanie: It certainly does and what a wonderful medical home that you've set up there at Hendricks Regional Health. Thanks so much for being with us today, Dr. Decesare. You're listening to Health Talks with HRH. For more information, you can go to hendricks.org. That's hendricks.org. This is Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for listening.