On Fridays, we schedule our rounds with Healthcare Brew readers. Want to be featured in an upcoming edition? Click here to introduce yourself.
This week’s Making Rounds spotlights Isaac Fields, the business director for South Carolina-based Fields Medical, which contracts with employer health and wellness provider Onsite Health Solutions in the southeast and offers administrative support to medical offices.
Fields shared how his company is working to expand healthcare access at the employer level while also freeing up physicians to spend more time with patients instead of paperwork.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Why did you decide to enter the medical field?
My wife and I are in it together. She just graduated from [physician assistant (PA)] school in September. I have some background experience in entrepreneurship, starting some businesses that have seen some success. And as she was in PA school, that’s when we initially started the conversation with Dave Berkemeier about Onsite Health Solutions, RxProtect [a company that helps employers lower their specialty drug costs], and some of the things he had been working on.
We transitioned into something a little bit broader with Fields Medical so we could offer the services with Dave and be able to bring that stuff down to this market. But also, in turn, we saw some business opportunities from my experience. There are a lot of physicians out there who are really gifted at what they do. But you don’t get your MBA along with your medical degree, unfortunately.
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A lot of people run their medical practice the way that they feel makes sense. There are just so many opportunities for them to run it more effectively so that they can focus on what they’re good at, which is providing care for patients.
How would you describe your specific job to someone who doesn’t work in healthcare?
The easiest would be to call me a healthcare and employee benefits consultant. We work with companies to figure out where they can save money, where they can help care for their employees better, and where they can provide better opportunities for the employees to receive healthcare. Then on the other side of things, obviously, we’re working with doctor’s offices to improve how they operate.
What’s the most fulfilling aspect of your job?
Getting to see the passion in the provider. With Onsite Health Solutions, our nurses and screeners get to see the people and the amazement when you communicate with them about the opportunities through which they could either save money or do simple things to make their health numbers better.
It’s amazing to see how passionate people in healthcare are.