The Jamestown Press announced the opening of Harbour Direct Primary Care in Jamestown, Rhode Island. Dr. Wendy Regan, who has been a resident and has practiced in the area for the last 20 years, decided to make the change to the direct primary care model. She is joined in the practice by Karyn Chiffer, who has been her certified medical assistant for the last 13 years ( She is picture above taking the blood pressure of Dr. Regan). They are both excited to bring their expertise and passion for medical care to the direct primary care model.

After 20 years of working in the fee for service model of primary care, she increasingly experienced less and less quality time with her patients. She believes that thorough and proper diagnosis requires time, trust and active listening, all of which were being eroded by shorter visits, longer wait times, surprise bills and less access to her when her patients needed her most. The DPC model will now allow her and her patients to spend more quality time together at each visit, to provide transparent billing without any surprises, to respect patients time with on time visits as well as to provide care to her patients when they need her.

For the family physician, it’s been a significant shift from seeing 2,500 patients for short bursts to building a potential 400-patient practice. In addition to office visits, Regan is able to diversify the type of visitation and level of care based on the patient, including home visits. She also has elderly patients who she regularly sees at their nursing home.

According to Regan, in the last 20 years, she has noticed the doctor-patient relationship change “because of insurance and time restraints when you have to see 25 patients a day.” For this reason, the direct primary care model is growing in popularity, with more doctors moving away from the corporate approach that permeates offices. The medical methodology of Regan’s practice is designed to deliver accessible, attentive service, as opposed to the private equity firms buying doctor’s offices and allowing corporate executives to run the show.

DPC News looks forward to hearing updates from Dr. Regan.