Jarica Thigpen Robyn Bratton
Manager at Coastal Mobile Medical Care, LLC
Website Address: coastalmedicalcare.com
Each week on “Making a Difference,” our host, Steve Strum, interviews people making a difference in their community. Today, Steve had the pleasure of talking with Jarica Thigpen & Robyn Bratton from Coastal Mobile Medical Care, LLC.
To learn more, check out https://coastalmedicalcare.com.
Short company description:
Coastal Mobile Medical Care is a concierge urgent care service that is here to make life easier by providing urgent care services in the comfort of your own home! Our service includes urgent care home visits, telemedicine visits, and mobile IV therapy that are convenient for all our patients. During a home visit, our Providers will come to your preferred location, perform a detailed exam, determine a diagnosis, and develop a treatment plan specific to your needs. We treat minor illnesses as well as perform minor procedures for both pediatrics and adults.
How do you define success?
Most would define success by a large number of patients or significant financial gain. However, we choose to define success in our being able to create a healthcare experience that allows us to spend quality time with our patients. Time allows us to truly listen to and identify our patient’s needs. Additionally, this quality time allows us to provide them exceptional quality when bringing the care to them while keeping them comfortable in their own environment.
How did you get started in your field or work?
The idea for Coastal Mobile Medical Care came from a desire to provide patients with a compassion driven, mobile healthcare experience. Robyn is a Nurse Practitioner who has worked in emergency medicine for 5 years. Jarica is a Physician Assistant who has also worked in emergency medicine for the last 8 years. We met while working as colleagues in an Emergency Room (ER) in the Jacksonville area. We both can see a change in medicine after working in the ER for many years, especially after the pandemic. Not only are the ERs and Urgent Cares overwhelmed with the number of patients they are seeing, but the stress on patients and families waiting hours for treatment is becoming more and more evident. Many of these patients’ concerns can be addressed outside of the emergency setting. In addition, they are paying an exponential amount of money for their co-pays. With all of this in mind, we decided “why not take the service to them?”
What’s one thing we should know that makes your company unique?
The thing that makes Coastal Mobile Medical Care unique is simply convenience. Patients are struggling to get last-minute appointments with their Primary Care Providers or their Pediatricians for acute illnesses like colds and earaches. The only option is going to an ER or an urgent care, which can take hours out of the day. Our service provides the convenience of being able to stay at home with a sick child or allows the opportunity to continue to work at the office until the appointment time is scheduled.
With so much burnout in the fast-paced world today, especially in medicine, we know that true, genuine service is rare to find. Coastal Mobile Medical Care desires to bring a valuable and personal healthcare experience to patients in need. Our goal is to bring back the foundation of medicine by re-introducing the use of house calls!
What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome in your business?
The biggest obstacle we have overcome is learning how to get our business name known to the public. Working in the ER, it is easy – the patients just come to you! People know exactly what the ER is and where to go when they need it.
Opening a business like this, we really have had to step outside of our comfort zone to pitch ourselves and our idea on a regular basis. We know it can be helpful to so many people. We just have to find a way, or many ways, to let people know we exist!
