Welcoming Back Leah PA-C to Kenai MediCenter Primary Care

Welcome Back Leah!! We missed you!!

Leah Streich, Physician Assistant and Registered Dietitian has a focus on woman’s health, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, and pediatric care.

Leah offers low stress annual exams with an emphasis on preventive medicine. Leah’s also offers family planning, IUD placement, and nutritional counseling.

MediCenter’s Mission

MediCenter is a Compassionate Primary Care Guided Medical Home that focuses on going after the cause of disease to help you be independently healthy.

What does this mean and why is it important for you?

MediCenter is Compassionate: With all the changes in healthcare, many people feel that healthcare professionals have lost their ability to relate , connect with, and show compassion to the patient. At MediCenter, our providers don’t hide behind a computer screen while giving a personal exam. They don’t rush off so that they can finish their notes before the next patient. They aren’t afraid to take a little more time to listen to the patient’s needs. At MediCenter, you are our reason for being and when you walk through our door, you are stepping into your medical home where you can be surrounded by those that care for you and look after your wellbeing.

MediCenter is a Primary Care Guided Medical Home: All too often, you as patients receive fragmented healthcare. MediCenter is a medical home where your primary care provider will guide you as the patient all the way from point “A” to point “Z”, and then all the way back to point “A” again. Your primary care providers at MediCenter know and understand that when they send you off to see a specialist, it is still their responsibility to see that you get there and receive the care you need, and then to also follow up afterward. In this day and age, with all the chronic disease going rampant throughout our society, this is needed more than ever. Our primary care providers at the MediCenter will guide you throughout your whole medical experience and will hold your hand throughout the whole journey.

The specialists at MediCenter also work hand in hand with your primary care providers, often consulting with them on your customized healthplan. Most importantly, the specialists that work inside MediCenter are specialists vetted and screened by your primary care providers as specialists that we feel are most effective in helping you become independently healthy. That trust, communication, and coordination creates a center of excellence in healthcare on the Kenai Peninsula like never before!

MediCenter Focuses on Going After the Cause of Disease: The practitioners and staff at the MediCenter have a deep rooted belief and culture that it is not enough to put “bandaids” over symptoms of disease without attempting to search out and treat the root cause of the symptoms. Yes, we prescribe the necessesary medications and treatments to help alleviate symptoms, but we are just as interested in helping you as our patient be rid of the causes of these diseases. We take into account environmental causes, lifestyle, and nutrition as well with each of our patients.

MediCenter wants YOU INDEPENDENTLY HEALTHY: If you are a true professional in healthcare, you have to be interested in working yourself out of a job, Period! It is our complete mission and everything that we stand for to help each of you become and stay independently healthy. If you never needed to see us except for your annual wellness visit, we would be ecstatic! We see this generation in our society getting sicker and sicker and we will not rest until we have helped turn the tide of this threatening Chronic Disease Epidemic and help you and your loved ones become and stay indepently healthy!

MediCenter Functional Medicine “Evidence Based, Peer Reviewed”

Dr. R Lynn Carlson and The MediCenter Functional Medicine Department is changing healthcare on the Kenai. Many on the Kenai demand top quality care that addresses the whole person and not just an isolated set of symptoms.

Functional Medicine in a nutshell is “Searching for and treating the cause of disease instead of just going after symptoms, incorporating lifestyle, environmental and genetic causes, and eveidence based nutritional medicine.”

Many other leaders in medicine are joining the movement to practice a more evidence based, peer reviewed, functional medicine as well! Read and learn how The Cleveland Clinic, one of the most well known, respected and nationally ranked medical clinics has added Functional Medicine into it’s treatment cycle at https://my.clevelandclinic.org/services/center-for-functional-medicine.

“Functional Medicine is an amazing tool in helping everyone grow and become independently healthy.”
—The Admin

To learn more about functional medicine, or to schedule a visit with one of our medical providers using a “Functional Medicine Approach”, call (907) 283-9118 today!

Kenai and Soldotna Patient Centered Medical Home

Training is the Path

When the MediCenter decided to become a Patient Centered Primary Care Home, we knew this transformation could not happen overnight. Since 2010, we have invested time into meetings, trainings, one on one and group discussions for the purpose of teaching our staff what our role is in this new program.

September’s office meeting was lead by Dr. R. Lynn Carlson. He started off by asking the staff, “What makes a great HOME?” At first there was silence. No one wanted to be the first to speak because they feared they would say the wrong answer. Finally someone raised their hand and said, “Love.” Then another, “Comfort……Service…..Encouragement… Trust.” For the next 20 minutes the room was warm with discussion about our own homes and our own families. We talked about sacrifice, honesty, unselfish, loyalty and trust. At the end of our list of 44 points Dr Carlson said, ”This list is what I try to bring to the MediCenter. This is how we all need to be. Our Patients should use these words when describing the level of care we provide.”

Kenai and Soldotna MediCenter Medical Home Approach

Within just a few hours, MediCenter has already recieved many positive and encouraging comments on our article in the front page of the business section in the Peninsula Clarion.

The above mentioned article is MediCenter “Our Medical Home Approach”.

Primary Care Medical homes are often misunderstood by organization that are not primary care lead. Being the Kenai Peninsula’s largest primary care lead multi-specality clinic, we feel that we have some enlightening things to say about our past primary care medical home success.

We have attached the article to this posting: MediCenter Our Medical Home Approach

We also are going to post it below, we hope this causes some further interest into why MediCenter is the preferred primary care lead multi-speciality clinic in the Kenai Peninsula.

We thank our patients for giving us the many opportunities to learn, grow, serve, and enable us to help provide the care which draws so many to our practice.

“Our Medical Home Approach”
“Hi I’m Clark and I am an employee and a real patient of MediCenter’s Primary Care Medical Home. I am one of the many patients who have been asked to help explain why I chose MediCenter and why I made MediCenter my Medical Home. While many other healthcare practices talk about patient centered care, very few really understand what being a “Primary Care Medical Home” actually means. While there are many important parts of a Primary Care Medical Home, at MediCenter, our focus will always be on the patient. This is only possible by moving away from “Physician-Centered Practices” to “Patient-Focused Teams”. MediCenter Primary Care Medical Home is demonstrated in our staff who put their hearts and careers into caring for others, it is about teams that work late to fit in one more patient, and about the individuals who give of themselves in service to help others in need. MediCenter Medical Home has a focus to advance the “Triple Aim” goals of “Better Health, Better Care, and Lower Costs”. I would urge you to call MediCenter and become a member of their medical home. You may have heard their slogan “At MediCenter, you’re always welcome, you’re always home”. As a current employee of the MediCenter and as a patient I have had the opportunity of seeing this firsthand. My family and I have always felt welcome, and we have always felt at home.”
Let’s blow away the smoke thrown around on what is a Primary Care Medical Home and discuss our pioneering work in getting MediCenter to be the Medical Home on the Kenai Peninsula. MediCenter Medical Home has a foundation built on various healthcare goals. These goals
are to reduce healthcare costs, improve clinic efficiency, improving patient access and engagement, improving continuity (healthcare follow-though) and coordination, improving prevention, and promote excellent care delivery.
A Person-Centered Approach to Care: During the last 10 years, MediCenter has moved from sick-care to real healthcare. What this means is that our providers have moved away from just treating symptoms of a disease. MediCenter care delivery is taking a new approach to solving the root cause of illness and not just treating the symptoms. Instead of managing illnesses, why not empower our patients to remove them? This is why MediCenter care is built around the needs of the individual and population. Instead of treating diabetes, let’s work together to reverse the disease. Together we can work to become independently healthy.
Wellness and Prevention: Our pioneering work starts with team based care to ensure that every patient has their yearly preventative physical which is usually covered by their insurance with little or no out-of-pocket costs. Many life-threatening illnesses are caught early on when we can do something by a basic screening during this annual exam. To ensure that our patients thrive, we have invested in care team staff at MediCenter. These individuals work tirelessly to have all patients go through their annual physical and to ensure that all preventative screening is performed.
Coordination of Care: Many have asked what MediCenter means when they say they are a Primary Care Lead Multi-Specialty Clinic. Primary care providers and staff act as patient advocates. Together we walk with our patients through specialty care and help make sure the patient is never lost in a sea of providers. Our staff works to ensure your prescriptions make their destination, which referrals find their way to the specialist, and most importantly, the specialists coordinate their care with the primary care provider. Only then can we achieve the highest level of care for each patient. We are your care advocates and we walk beside our patients in all stages of life. Contact your primary care provider and watch as your care improves with any chronic disease. For a medical home in which your primary care provider walks side by side with you, helping coordinate all aspects of your medical care, please call 283-9118 today.

MEDICENTER ADDS JARED WALLACE

We are pleased to announce that Jared Wallace, a certified Physician’s Assistant, has joined our MediCenter team in Kenai. With his genuine approach, Jared has been serving patients and their families on the Peninsula for over 3 years and is committed to being your family care provider here at MediCenter. He is excellent with minor emergencies and he is excited to be a part of our ‘After Hours’ clinic that has just opened at MediCenter.

Call 283-9118 and make an appointment with Jared Wallace today!

VARICOSE VEIN AND SPIDER VEIN TREATMENT for all Kenai, Soldotna, Homer, K-Beach, Nikiski, and Sterling patients!

We know that varicose veins and spider veins are more than just cosmetic nuisances; they cause inflammation and pain, and eventually can form ulcers, making life very uncomfortable, and not just on the social level. Give yourself an opportunity to feel good again. With our Vein Specialists here at MediCenter, we are offering regular free screenings for varicose veins.

Remember, varicose veins and spider veins won’t just go away. Let us help you take care of them. Call 283-9118 to schedule a free screening today. The procedure is less expensive than you think, and we do accept payment plans when needed. To find out more information go to our Varicose Vein Page on our website under services or go to Alaskaveincare.com.

Free Podcast for Pain Management from Kenai MediCenter

MediCenter was built upon simple principles such as answering all our patients questions, taking the time to know our patients, and helping patients feel understood. These prinicples are what we call excellent care and every patient deserves this quality care.

Our providers participate in free informational podcasts and we share them with the entire Kenai Peninsula.

Please listen to a FREE PAIN MANAGEMENT PODCAST attached to this webpage. To listen, please double click on the this link PMN_Apr2013_Edit1

MediCenter’s own Andrea Trescot, MD spoke in the April 2013 Pain Management News Podcast about the role genetics play into excellent pain managment.

Dr. Trescot spoke with Pain Medicine news editor Donald Pizzi to discuss her new educational review “Genetic Testing in Pain Medicine,” published in the April issue.

We are thankful that Dr. Trescot provides Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula with a true expert. She is open to new patients and is here 3 days a week.

To schedule an appointment for a consultation, please call (907) 335-2490 today!

Expert Pain Management Doctor in Kenai!

Andrea Trescot, MD is past president of the American Society of Interventional Pain Physicians (ASIPP), a former professor at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, and previous director of the Pain Fellowship Programs at the University of Washington and the University of Florida. She graduated from the Medical University of South Carolina, with internship and residency in Anesthesia at Bethesda Naval Hospital and a Fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesia at National Children’s Hospital in Washington.

Board Certified Pain Management Doctor In Kenai!

Meet Ruth Anderson, M.D. Kenai’s only Board Certified Interventional Pain Physician & Anesthesiologist!

Dr. Anderson and the Algone Center have teamed up with MediCenter to offer the Kenai Peninsula a fresh approach to Pain Management, bringing patient excellent results and quality of healthcare back! The Algone Pain Management Center is located in the heart of Kenai inside the MediCenter building.

Dr. Anderson is a board certified physician in anesthesiology and pain management, noted fitness expert, and wellness consultant. She combines her extensive medical background with a masters degree in exercise physiology and twenty-five years of experience in fitness and nutrition to bring a unique perspective to health and patient care. Dr. Anderson was a dance major at the prestigious NYU School of the Arts in New York City until a back injury ended her dreams as a professional dancer. She went on to earn a BS in counseling and a MS in exercise physiology from Penn State University. She attended medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas where she graduated in the top 10% of her class, and was fellowship trained in Pain Management at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Anderson ran a hospital-based fitness program in Fort Worth, Texas for two years where her passion for health and wellness flourished. Dr. Anderson currently runs her own pain management practice in Palm Desert, California where she uses her fitness and wellness expertise to teach her patients that the power to heal lies within and provides the tools to help them reach their goals. Before moving to Alaska, Dr. Anderson ran her own pain management practice in Palm Desert, California, where in addition to providing the medical tools to help her patients, she also used her fitness and wellness expertise to provide comprehensive and customized care plan for each patient.

Dr. Ruth Anderson is still accepting new patients! To schedule an appointment or a consultation with Dr. Ruth Anderson, please call (907) 335-2499 today!