This article is a sponsored content piece in partnership with St. Elizabeth Healthcare.
Searching for a family doctor in Northern Kentucky can be a big decision, especially since you are likely searching for the best care available to you and your family. Thankfully, you have a great option right here in Northern Kentucky. The Family Practice Center, located in Edgewood, provides a high level of care for all ages. From well visits and physicals to chronic disease management and resources, the Family Practice Center is centered around an innovative approach to family medicine.
The Family Practice Center consists of 30 resident physicians who are fully immersed in an intensive three year program that is dedicated to providing a wide range of services.
St. Elizabeth’s Family Practice Center is proud to provide the following services;
- Obstetrics
- Pediatrics
- Adolescent medicine
- Adult & geriatric medicine
- Behavioral health counseling
- Holistic medicine
- On-site limited lab testing
- EKGs
- Spirometry
- Colposcopy
- Flexible sigmoidoscopy
- Nasopharyngoscopy
- Acupuncture
- Skin lesion removal
These resident physicians are under the expert direction of an experienced team of teaching physicians including, Dr. Kenneth C. Bazydlo. LINK nky sat down with Dr. Bazydlo to learn more about the Family Practice Center, which will soon be renamed “The Center for Family Medicine”, and its goal to provide state-of-the-art care and bring more doctors to NKY to practice general medicine.
LINK nky: How long have you been with St. Elizabeth and can you explain your role at the Family Practice Center?
Dr. Bazydlo: I have been with St. Elizabeth for about 2 years and I’m one of the core faculty of our residency program. My main job is to help take care of residents and help them with their education. I directly work with residents and oversee their day to day practices. I supervise their encounters and procedures in office and in the hospital. I also see patients a couple days a week outside of my responsibilities with the residents.
LINK nky: I understand that the name for the Center is changing. Can you explain why and what other changes may occur at the center?
Dr. Bazydlo: Yes, we are changing the name from the Family Practice Center to The Center for Family Medicine by the end of the year. Traditionally, the term ‘family practice’ has been used in the past so we’re changing it to be more current with nomenclature as ‘family medicine’.
Really what we hope to do, outside of changing the name, is to be a hub for primary care excellence and innovation. In our region, we want to be on the leading edge of innovation. We want our practice to be up to date on the most current technology, medicine and evidence-based care. This is how we push the whole system of family medicine into the future.
LINK nky: I see some of the services that are covered at the center but what medical services are generally used the most at this location?
Dr. Bazydlo: Great question – we offer a broad range of services and I would like to stress that we have very good availability at the moment for new patients. We can get those patients into the office in a short time frame.
The most common services are wellcare like healthy visits or annual physicals. We also do a lot of chronic disease management for conditions like COPD, Diabetes, Heart Disease, and mental health needs.
We also do pediatric care from newborns through adulthood. The great part is that we offer care from birth to 18 to adulthood. We also offer prenatal care in the office. Say you have a patient, a healthy 25-year-old who becomes pregnant, we will be there to take care of you while you’re pregnant, in labor and delivery, and after the baby is born for pediatric care.
One thing that is unique about St. Elizabeth is that we have our own hospital service. If any of our patients see us in the office and then are admitted at the hospital in Edgewood, someone on the team will be there on their rounds to check on the patient.. Since being hospitalized can be scary, seeing a familiar face from your own practice is so important for comforting our patients.
LINK nky: Are there any specialized doctors or residents available at the Family Practice Center or more general care?
Dr. Bazydlo: In general, the goal with family medicine is taking things to the next level. Part of the things we are offering now will remain in place while we will be adding more services for patients to access in the office.
Right now, we have a licensed Social Worker who is also a Counselor. This is fantastic because she helps with our social work components like navigating insurance, getting medications authorized and getting medical equipment to house. She helps with all of that.
We also have a Health Care Coordinator that helps with medication assistance, making sure patients have everything they need to stay out of the hospital and working with the pharmacy team to make sure their medications are affordable and that their paperwork gets sorted out. We are also planning on ramping up the radiology services we can offer. We currently have on-site radiography services and point of care testing, like EKGs, at the center.
LINK nky: Does the Center offer any preventive health services or health education programs for patients?
Dr. Bazydlo: A huge advantage of being a part of St. Elizabeth is that St. Elizabeth has a ton of resources that we can tap into. For example, Diabetic Education is offered through the Covington office so we have the best of the best that we can help patients get access to. St. Elizabeth also offers lab services, imaging, mammography, physical therapy and more.
Our Care Coordinator in the center also has basic training on a variety of educational topics and can provide samples, teach patients how to inject insulin, and other things in case a patient can’t get in for a full training immediately.
LINK nky: Why do you feel this type of center is important in the Northern Kentucky region?
Dr. Bazydlo: I think it’s all about what Family Medicine is going to be in the future. We are not only developing a care model that is innovative, we are also planning ahead for what the community will need in the next 10 to 15 years.
We also feel it is important for pragmatic reasons – we need more family care doctors in the region. The center, which has been part of St. Elizabeth’s for almost 50 years, accepts 10 new doctors each year into the 3-years program, drawing high quality talent and people who want to stay here in NKY. Through our residency program, we get people who come to train here but then most end up staying in the community. If someone says they’ll stay, that’s another doctor that will be in the area for 20 to 30 years.
To learn more about St. Elizabeth’s Center for Family Medicine, please click here.
