March 6, 2025 • 49 mins
In this episode, Wayne Lowry sits down with Dr. John Rothwell, founder of Island Direct Primary Care, about his journey from military medic to DPC entrepreneur. Hear how his experience in combat medicine shaped his patient-first philosophy, why he’s passionate about serving the underserved, and what’s next in the world of DPC.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Dr. John RothwellYou know, when I'm not running the DPC thing, I'm out there getting as much in as I can.
(00:05):
Wayne LowrySo when you say the volcanic region, you're not meaning like an active volcano, are you?
Dr. John RothwellI am. So, the active volcano is actually called El Fuego, and so his nickname is Puff.
Dr. John RothwellIt actually erupted about five years ago.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, while one of my mission teams was there, and so they were, it was getting ready to erupt.
(00:27):
Dr. John RothwellSo, they had to get out of the area and then, they got stuck at the airport for a few days waiting for the smoke to clear.
Wayne LowrySo, you think there's a good metaphor for direct primary care with an erupting volcano? Can you make a metaphor for me?
Dr. John RothwellI think that is it right?
Dr. John RothwellDirect primary care exploding into the health system like a volcano in Italy.
(00:54):
Wayne LowryThere you go. All right.
Wayne LowryWell, I think that Pompeii. No, wait, everybody died there. Dr. John Rothwell Pompeii. Right.
Wayne LowryDon't think we want that one.
Dr. John RothwellWe don't.
Wayne LowryHello and welcome to the Best DPC podcast the World's #1 podcast covering all things direct primary care.
(01:22):
Wayne LowryI'm your host, Wayne Lowery.
Wayne LowryI'm not a doctor, but I've got the cure for your boredom.
Wayne LowryDirect Primary Care talk. If that doesn't cure it, nothing will.
Wayne LowryToday, I am thrilled to have with me a guest that I met a couple years ago in San Diego, CA and actually met him.
Wayne LowryI think we were both waiting for an Uber and the rest is history.
(01:45):
Wayne LowryAnd so we have been in contact ever since.
Wayne LowryAnd so I was really excited to have him on the podcast.
Wayne LowryDoctor John Rothwell is with us is a combat veteran, 35 year rugby player and the founder of Island Direct Primary Care, where he is blending traditional and functional medicine to change lives..
Wayne LowryHe also is a champion for veterans and the underserved with the heart for service that shines through everything he does.
(02:11):
Wayne LowryOh, and he also has a little bit of a mystery project, which I promise to try to get to the bottom of, although he told me,
Wayne LowryHe's not going to tell me what he's doing in stealth mode, but maybe we can get some hints and figure it out ourselves.
Wayne LowrySo before we dive into his incredible story from the battlefield to the exam room, I want to explore how he is shaking up healthcare with DPC.
(02:36):
Wayne LowryLet's get started and get to know the man behind the mission. So welcome, John.
Dr. John RothwellHey, thanks Wayne..
Dr. John RothwellThanks for having me. And it's good to catch up after the past couple of years.
Dr. John RothwellLots of growth since then for the direct private care movement.
Wayne LowryA lot of great things are happening and you're a busy man .
Dr. John RothwellHey, you know, it's no rest for the weary.
(02:58):
Wayne LowryWell, so one thing I have to ask, I mean this is before we get into like the real serious questions, I do need to ask, have you read any books lately?
Dr. John RothwellOh wow.
Wayne LowryI mean, you only have an incomplete wall of every book that's ever been written right behind you.
Wayne LowryLike you know, you know, you're talking to a man, a learned man. When you see that many books behind him.
(03:20):
Wayne LowryThen let's look at how many books I got.
Wayne LowryI got like 7 books and a couple of those are just props.
Dr. John RothwellSo I have a couple goals this year.
Dr. John RothwellIt's not to read 3 or 4 books at one time, but to read 1.
Dr. John RothwellI'm compromising one for, I think they're all fun, but one that's kind of somewhat fictional and I like military history so most of my fun books are a blend of factual history with some fictional characters.
(03:49):
Dr. John RothwellAnd then of course, naturally, I think being in healthcare, if you're going to be in the front of the movement, if you're going to be in front of healthcare, you always have to be educating yourself.
Dr. John RothwellSo, I always have some kind of book like “Outlive” or “Goodness Gracious”
Dr. John RothwellAny of the functional health type books that are talking about, you know, gut health and dysbiosis or DNA. So right now, I'm reading a few things on genes and genetics and their influence on people's longevity.
(04:21):
Dr. John RothwellTo be a business entrepreneur, right?
Dr. John RothwellWe're talking about marketing and running companies.
Wayne LowrySo let me ask you, So you're doing some deep dive in longevity. I'm 42 years old. Can you make me live to 142?
Wayne LowryI think 120 is not quite enough and I think if we hit like 180 to 200, I might get bored.
(04:43):
Dr. John RothwellI think 140 is a long time, but you know, I think there was a lady in France that thought she was going to die young and a guy offered to buy her apartment.
Dr. John RothwellAnd she said she'd sell it to him when she died.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so he bought the apartment. She got to live there for free, and she lived to be 120 years old. And she actually outlived him.
(05:05):
Dr. John RothwellSo, that's interesting.
Dr. John RothwellI don't think any of us can really tell how long longevity is.
Dr. John RothwellI think the most important thing is can you live healthy long?
Dr. John RothwellSo, do you have a real health span with your increased lifespan?
Wayne LowrySo obviously part of that is a good diet and lots of exercise. So for a man who has been playing rugby for 35 years, tell me a little bit about that.
(05:33):
Wayne LowryHow are you still actively involved in such a physical sport?
Dr. John RothwellSure. So here at Island Direct Primary Care, we actually talk about nutrition as fuel versus diet and we don't talk about exercise, but we talk about movement and more specifically functional movement and moving in your daily life whether it's working in your yard or working in your extracurricular activities.
(05:58):
Dr. John RothwellRugby demands a tremendous amount of physical fitness, emotional fitness and mental fitness. And so, you know, taking that holistic approach there has kind of really helped me, my military background.
Dr. John RothwellI stopped playing competitive men's rugby at 47 so I'm going to be 55 and so I stopped playing at 54 because I have probably—I think it's 9 herniations and 15 bulging discs.
(06:29):
Wayne LowryIs that a record? I’m not a doctor.
Dr. John RothwellI have no clue, but I want to be able to enjoy the rest of my life and hike and travel and stuff like that with my spouse, Wendy. And so it was time to hang up the boots. I still coach. I’m the team chaplain, I'm the team trainer.
(06:50):
Dr. John RothwellWe have 4 physicians, MD's and DO's that work emergency medicine on the team, but you know being a doc and that's the military term for medics in Corman. I do all that too.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm the guy suturing everybody up on the sideline.
Wayne LowryWow.
Wayne LowryYou know, I will tell you that I've always been fascinated with rugby.
Wayne LowryI kind of wish it would take off more as a main sport in the US. I think it'd be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, where I live, there's a lot of soccer and on one hand you got rugby players who are like in the pit. They're like fighting against each other and I don't know, biting or whatever they do. And like scrambling and like doing everything and no complaints.
(07:30):
Wayne LowrySoccer players, the wind shifts in a different direction, they fall down, grab their legs so…
Wayne LowryTo me, rugby is far superior as a national option in my opinion, than soccer. Not my hot political take.
Dr. John RothwellActually we were at the national championship in Austin, so I know you're still in Texas, right?
Wayne LowryYeah. Yes, I am.
(07:51):
Dr. John RothwellYeah. And so we had the national championship in Texas last year. And so my home club, where I'm the team trainer, actually went—we actually lost to Austin in the last 90 seconds of the game to go to the national championship finals.
Wayne LowryOh, man. I never made it out of district and I was homeschooled, so my sister beat me at every activity.
(08:19):
Wayne LowrySo you started your career off as a flight medic in the army.
Wayne LowryYou want to talk a little bit about that and how that shaped maybe your perspective in your view of direct primary care?
Dr. John RothwellYeah. You know, in the military you have lots of training, lots of opportunities to get the experience to be autonomous and so you know, that has its risks, right? Because of the scope of practice and these kind of things when you're in an infantry environment or when you're out on a helicopter, you kind of have to be able to adapt and overcome. And really, truly know what you're doing from an emergency perspective.
(08:56):
Dr. John RothwellSo, being an EMT paramedic early on in my career afforded me that opportunity to gain that experience.
Dr. John RothwellWhat's interesting though is, you know, we had 468 guys in my unit and we had no MD or DO.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we're stuck in the middle of nowhere.
(09:19):
Dr. John RothwellAnd we had to kind of make the call, get a flight surgeon that we reported to and that was kind of like our supervising physician.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they kind of set things up for me to want to do the most I can for the people that I'm working with.
Dr. John RothwellSo that's kind of where I kicked it off.
Dr. John RothwellI survived the Middle East and came home, went to college and that's where the road began.
(09:45):
Wayne LowrySo you went to college, you went to UCF.
Wayne LowryTell us about that experience and how's your football team this year?
Dr. John RothwellOh, goodness. So yeah…
Dr. John RothwellI had to do that a couple times because I was on the rugby team.
Dr. John RothwellBut so I got my nursing degree from University of Central Florida, my bachelor's, master's and my doctorate there.
(10:08):
Dr. John RothwellI was faculty for seven years.
Dr. John RothwellMy primary focus was health promotions, population health management, taking some doctorate students through their dissertation and on health, physical assessment, diagnostic reasoning and regarding our football team.
Dr. John RothwellI sit on the 50 yard line for season tickets and so we're kind of hoping that Scott Frost is able to come back and do the same thing he did the first time he was here.
(10:39):
Dr. John RothwellBut either way, it's just good sports and you know, I believe in the university and what its mission is.
Dr. John RothwellMatter of fact, one of the things that I will share is we just announced our first endowed scholarship for University of Central Florida for nurse entrepreneurs. And so this is a focus on how to help nurses get into the workforce from an entrepreneurial perspective.
(11:07):
Wayne LowryThat's an awesome program.
Wayne LowryI think it's going to make a lot of—hopefully with your influence, it'll push more people towards the DPC space.
Dr. John RothwellThat's the goal.
Wayne LowryNice. So you're talking about being in a combat situation without an MD around for some of that experience.
Wayne LowryHow did that, in your mind, influence how you deal specifically with patients?
(11:31):
Wayne Lowry'Cause, I'm sure you're seeing patients that—you may have somebody come in that has never been to a doctor before, you know? And they're rougher around the edges and they're fearful, they lash.
Wayne LowryI'd imagine there might be some of that from your past experience. So, how does that kind of tie into your doctor-patient relationship?
(11:53):
Dr. John RothwellThat's a great question, Wayne.
Dr. John RothwellSo you have nurse practitioners and physician assistants who have very similar roles, although their education is different. I mean, you have your medical doctor and your Doctor of Osteopathic medicine.
Dr. John RothwellI know we weren't going to go down that road because it's not a kind of a us versus them thing. It's really a scope of practice thing.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, what combat environment taught me was you need to know what you don't know and work within that scope of practice. And so, in our practice—I have 3 nurse practitioners working here at Island Direct primary care.
(12:31):
Dr. John RothwellWe've been open for five years.
Dr. John RothwellYou know, over 1000 patients and that's why I tell them the most important thing for you to know is what you don't know and then work within your scope of practice.
Dr. John RothwellBeing able to identify quickly what you don't know when a patient comes to the door—and we don't have a waiting room. So, it's when they come to the office, even before we go to the exam room and they start spilling their guts out because they got an hour with you.
(13:01):
Dr. John RothwellYou need to quickly be able to determine, “Is there something here that I you—What do I not know?” Because they do come to you for the acute care environment.
Dr. John RothwellThey're not going to urgent care. They're not going to the ER. So someone comes in and their tummy hurts, you need to be able to triage that abdominal pain or other things, by knowing your patient. So in the military, we know our unit, we know our soldiers, we live with them and the direct primary care environment, you know your patients.
(13:35):
Dr. John RothwellWe're always talking about knowing your patients by name, we know your kids, we know their dogs, their cats, their parents
Dr. John RothwellYou know, it's really old fashioned healthcare just in a time of modernization, right? Where we have technology as a resource.
Wayne LowryAnd so how is that life experience translated directly into your practice, Island Direct Primary Care or Island DPC?
(14:04):
Dr. John RothwellI mean, for me the translation is fairly simple.
Dr. John RothwellI just needed to—since I didn't know how to diagnose, prescribe and those things, I had to go back to school and get the right education and get the right experience. And so for me, I was working in the emergency room. I had a great medical director there that took me under his wing.
Dr. John RothwellI helped a physician grow his urgent care from three clinics to sixteen clinics. Now, he has 20 clinics.
(14:33):
Dr. John RothwellSo, it was kind of directly translating in knowing what you don't know, bringing it to the community and having the confidence to go out there and know that you need to do the right thing every single time within your scope of practice.
Wayne LowryI wanna take a quick break to talk about bestdpc.com.
(14:54):
Wayne LowryAre you a doctor looking to break free from the headaches of insurance and take control of your practice?
Wayne LowryOr maybe you're an employer searching for an affordable healthcare solution that actually works.
Wayne LowryAt bestdpc.com, we cut through the noise and connect you with the country's best direct primary care clinics.
Wayne LowryWhether you're a patient tired of surprise medical bills or a physician ready to build a thriving membership base practice, we've got the tools and resources you need.
(15:22):
Wayne LowryFind the best CPC doctors near.
Wayne LowryGet expert advice and take the first step towards a better healthcare.
Wayne LowryVisit bestdvc.com today and see why Direct Primary Care is the future of medicine.
Wayne LowryThat's bestdpc.com because great health care should be simple, affordable and built around you.
Wayne LowryBut before the show, we talked a little bit about traditional medicine and more functional medicine and how you try to take a holistic approach and based on your life experience, how do you implement that in your practice?
(15:57):
Dr. John RothwellThat's a great question, Wayne.
Dr. John RothwellFor me, when we talk about holistic health care and how we provide health care holistically, it's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial wellness.
Dr. John RothwellSo, we kind of tried to address and make sure that we're knowledgeable on each patient's background when it comes to those “Five Pillars of Health”—is what I call them.
(16:23):
Dr. John RothwellThese are our 5 Pillars of Health. Tying it to functional medicine is interesting because you have traditional health care; there's lots of medicine that's prescribed. In functional medicine, there's all these trends and buzzwords like root cause medicine and then, they do all the supplement stuff. So, I kind of take issue with both of them.
(16:46):
Dr. John RothwellWe kind of look at ourselves as an integrative practice and an integrative is really just taking, “How does the physical health influence the mental health?”
Dr. John Rothwell“How does the patient respond emotionally?”
Dr. John RothwellYou know, “How do they respond spiritually?” and then of course, “What's the financial implications of it?” And so, I remember early on, when we opened Island Direct Primary Care, I had a patient come to me who was complaining of anxiety and he never had anxiety before.
(17:14):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we tried a number of different things .
Dr. John RothwellI won't get into the finer details, but we went from supplements to traditional medicine and things worked for about 3 weeks at a time, and he goes, “Hey, doc, things worked about 3 weeks at a time and then it stops working. Why is that?”
Dr. John RothwellI said, “When are you going to tell me what's making you anxious?”
(17:37):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so when he did—what it boiled down to, he was a veteran. He was in college. He needed to refinance his house, he was told he couldn’t.
Dr. John RothwellHe had a wife in college and he had three children. And so, his anxiety was he was going to be able to provide for his family.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I introduced him to a mortgage lender.
Dr. John RothwellI never had to treat him for anxiety again.
(17:58):
Dr. John RothwellHe closed in two weeks.
Wayne LowrySo what you're saying is sometimes the best medicine is getting a good mortgage rate.
Dr. John RothwellYeah, right? I think sometimes the best medicine is just spending time listening to your patients.
Wayne LowryYeah, so in your practice, I know a lot of DPC’s really promote the amount of time they have in a general setting like appointment time.
(18:23):
Wayne LowryWhat's your average appointment time?
Dr. John RothwellOne hour.
Wayne LowryOne hour. Wow. Can you block off like an hour plus or how do you block that off and keep the patient schedule intact.
Dr. John RothwellSo, we let our patients schedule their own appointments online. Our virtual health appointments are automatically 30 minutes. Our procedures are automatically 30 minutes. And then, the office visits follow up visits, new patient appointments, all those are automatically set at one hour.
(18:59):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so realistically, if they're willing to embrace the technology, then they self schedule.
Of course, we have an office manager and operations manager and so they can call in and schedule that way as well.
Dr. John RothwellEvery nurse practitioner that I have in the practice has the same ability, and so I typically, I mean, I have 450 patients and I have anywhere between 10 and 15 free hours a week.
(19:25):
Dr. John RothwellAt least going into the week and that typically gets eaten up by acute care.
Wayne LowryGot you.
Wayne LowrySo you don't think we could eat up some of that on the beach, you and me?
Dr. John RothwellWe can, but I'd have to block it. “Is off,” and then I'm available through my virtual health app, right?
Wayne LowryWell, that's what I'm saying.
Wayne LowryYou can jump on the iPad and I'll just sit there at the beach, if that's OK.
(19:48):
Wayne LowrySo what is the weather there right now, by the way?
Wayne LowryHow is it? Dr. John Rothwell So it's about 73°.
Dr. John RothwellNo wind and the boat is ready to roll, man.
Dr. John RothwellWe’re going to go out on Saturday.
Wayne LowryI'll be there. So, just let me know where.
Wayne LowrySo let me ask you a question.
Wayne LowryYou're talking about them signing up or setting their appointment online. Tell me about your tech stack.
(20:13):
Wayne LowryWhat are you using tech wise for booking your appointments?
Wayne LowryI'm a tech nerd, so I always want to know what’s your tech stack?
Dr. John RothwellYeah, I love it.
Dr. John RothwellWhen I got mad at health care the first time and I left for 10 years, I did technology and then found my way back into healthcare.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I like tech stacks too. I started with Atlas. I ended up leaving Atlas because I really like the Hint membership management platform.
(20:42):
Dr. John RothwellSo I start off with Hint.
Dr. John RothwellI have Elation today, not married to them.
Dr. John RothwellI'm not happy with many of the EMR systems 'cause I'm a data nerd and I can't get enough data from any of the electronic medical records that I found.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I use spruce.
Dr. John RothwellAnd then we just started using Loom. And so, what I will do for patients who have normal labs or labs that you know are getting better and they might be on one medication or one supplement or something like that for that, I'll actually make a recording, you know, a five minute recording on Loom and send them that link. And that will keep them from doing—
(21:22):
Dr. John RothwellIt's still personal.
Dr. John RothwellBut it will keep them from making that 30 minute appointment follow up.
Wayne LowrySo basically you're doing an asynchronous appointment with Loom. You're saying, you're sitting there at 10:00 at night or whatever, going, “All right, let me let me clear off. Wayne's coming to town. We’re going to hit the boat. Let me clear off a couple of these appointments right now.”
(21:43):
Dr. John RothwellExactly. And so, you know, I come from the high speed data world when we were going from dial up to DSL. And so I believe in asynchronous and synchronous technologies and so we utilize that to the fullest.
Wayne LowryNow, what about? What about your day-to-day platform? Are you a Google guy?
Wayne LowryAre you a Microsoft Teams?
Wayne LowryWhat are you using for that?
(22:05):
Dr. John RothwellGoogle Drive.
Dr. John RothwellFor majority of our stuff, you know, I might Zoom for different meetings, you know, outside of the practice, specially in my veteran type stuff. I have a cybersecurity company too, so sometimes I will pretty much use zoom for that.
Dr. John RothwellI don't like Microsoft Teams.
(22:28):
Wayne LowryYeah. That seems like a podcast conversation for another day 'cause I wanna hear about your security team as well.
Wayne LowryI remember when we met that seemed like to be one of the topics was, “Hey, how many businesses do you run?”
Wayne LowrySo, that's really interesting.
Wayne LowryWell, so let me ask you back on your practice specific before we kind of move into some of your other passion projects.
(22:52):
Wayne LowryWhat would you say is really something that is just tangible that you've noticed being in direct primary care, maybe a success story or just something you see time and time again that gives you that, that fire to keep coming back to work, keep coming back to the office?
Wayne LowryWhat is it in particular that success that you've seen that just keeps you motivated?
(23:18):
Dr. John RothwellYou know, to be honest, I think it's two areas and they're not my greatest areas of…
Dr. John RothwellSo my population is between 25 and 44.
Dr. John RothwellAbout 34% of my population.
Dr. John RothwellAnother 34-35% between 45 and 64.
(23:39):
Dr. John RothwellIt's my elderly population and my pediatric population. I think actually brings me the greatest joy and keeps me passionate.
Dr. John RothwellA good example is I have a young family.
Dr. John RothwellMom is 28 years old.
Dr. John RothwellShe has a four year old, a 2 year old, and has a 2 month old and so and I've been with them since that baby was five days old, you know?
(24:04):
Dr. John RothwellSo I did the first baby well check. The four year old gets influenza.
Dr. John RothwellMom calls me.
Dr. John RothwellShe's, you know, scared and concerned because she has a 2 month old at home and there's always risk with young babies, especially if they're under the age of 90 days old.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we kind of set up a system, what I call a comfort system, for her because my moms have kind of a package.
(24:31):
Dr. John RothwellThey have an autoscope that connects to their phone that they can take pictures for me. They have it, you know, kind of like a remote patient monitoring type deal.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so every couple hours when you know the four year old would wake up and she'd take a rectal temperature, I would get an update, right?
Dr. John RothwellSo it was a long weekend for me, but she felt comfortable and her husband worked nights and that's how he provided for the family.
(25:01):
Dr. John RothwellThey were an entrepreneur, single income. And so just seeing how she would just was relaxed throughout the whole weekend, even though she was stressed.
Dr. John RothwellShe was comfortable with what we're doing here at Island Direct Primary Care that she wasn't rushing off to the emergency room. We had very clear guidelines on what to do when, you know, based off of temperature, based off of symptoms. And that just made me feel good.
(25:29):
Dr. John RothwellJust being able to make those young families feel comfortable.
Dr. John RothwellWithin their own capabilities, and I think moms are superheroes. And so letting Mom know that she's a superhero and that she has this. And even though her husband's away at work, she's going to be able to care for the family.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so that was super cool.
(25:50):
Dr. John RothwellOn the flip side of that, you know it's those 90 year old patients, those 94 year old patients, the 96 year old ones where they're kind of grouchy, they don't want to go to the doctor, they have all these appointments to go to
Dr. John RothwellAnd all these specialists and so when you get involved because the family is just sick and tired of taking them to all these different appointments.
(26:12):
Dr. John RothwellNobody's happy.
Dr. John RothwellThey can't get to anywhere on time because you know, it's three weeks. It's one month. It's 45 days. By giving them direct primary care, they're getting the attention and support.
Dr. John RothwellThat they need and you know, one of the most beautiful moments that I had in my practice was I had a 96 year old female patient and she was end of life and we helped the family kind of make that determination.
(26:41):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we got a phone call and it said, “Hey, Doctor John, just want to let you know, she said she's not feeling it and she's tired.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd I said, “Cool, go sit next to her. Give her a hug and a kiss. Hold her hand. I'll be there at 5:30.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we left the office at 5:00 and at 5:30 we went to their house.
(27:04):
Dr. John RothwellAnd we sat with them and we held them and we held their hand and stuff like that. You can't get this outside of direct primary care.
Dr. John RothwellYou don't even get this at concierge medicine, MD VIP, signature MD and all that.
Dr. John RothwellYou don't get that. You get a phone number and you get the dude that has the business.
Dr. John RothwellIn direct primary care, I don't care if you're a physician, MD, DO, NP, PA.
(27:25):
Dr. John RothwellThat's the kind of care of experience that you get in direct primary care and so you can see the passion in my voice as I get excited about that.
Wayne LowryThat is awesome.
Wayne LowryYeah. I mean think about it. When I try to explain direct primary care to someone who doesn't understand.
Wayne LowryI say, you remember Little House on the Prairie. Or do you remember way back in the 1930s and 40s when the doctor would come to your house when they would know your name?
(27:56):
Wayne LowryDo you remember It's A Wonderful Life when they call the doctor?
Wayne LowryThat is direct primary care.
Wayne LowryIt’s that relationship.
Wayne LowryYou know them and they know you. Wayne Lowry I think it's so cool when I see one of my providers. I mean, I'm so blessed like my daughter has a provider in TPC. I have a provider.
Wayne LowryWe see them at sport events around town. We see them at restaurants and they know us and they ask about us and they're checking up on us and that's just some of the most, you know…
(28:28):
Wayne LowryIs it more affordable for family? Yes .
Wayne LowryAnd that's key.
Wayne LowryThat's so important in this economy.
Wayne LowryBut at the end of the day, it's about that relationship and knowing you've got a provider or doctor that has your back.
Wayne LowryAnd so I'm glad to hear it come from you, because I already know you're a passionate person,
Wayne Lowrybut for the audience to know like this is real and the passion you get from that personal relationship is apparent in the way you describe it.
(29:01):
Dr. John RothwellAnd here's a cool thing. I started island direct primary care, we're on an island.
Dr. John RothwellIt's called Merritt Island.
Dr. John RothwellIt's really a peninsula and it's near the Space Center.
Dr. John RothwellSo the rockets go off every day in the background.
Dr. John RothwellShakes the practice. It’s super cool.
Dr. John RothwellI started my practice with the 1924 bag, doctor's bag, that I bought on Etsy.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I had a 1997 Jeep Wrangler without any doors, without any sides, had just a bikini top and I did home visits.
(29:32):
Wayne LowryOK. That just blows my mind.
Wayne LowryHere we are, the year 20.
Wayne LowryWhen did you start 2019-2020?
Wayne LowryWhen did you start the practice? Dr. John Rothwell Yeah. So yeah, 2019. And so starting to 2019. And so we're looking at buying our… we have our second place rented.
Dr. John RothwellDoing an over build right now.
Dr. John RothwellWe're putting in an offer on a building across the street and I'm looking for my third location right now.
(29:58):
Wayne LowryWow, look at you. From no doors on a Jeep to a multi clinic location and in the middle of that COVID.
Wayne LowrySo here you go.
Dr. John RothwellHere we go and a Jeep Rubicon, instead of the 1997 Jeep.
Dr. John RothwellThe COVID allowed me to get a 2020 Jeep Rubicon because they had a healthcare provider deal with Jeep and he had 0% interest, right?
(30:24):
Wayne LowryOh dude
Wayne LowrySo, I'm in.
Wayne LowryThere you go. There you go.
Wayne LowrySo I want to transition just a moment again. You're super passionate about what you do, but beyond just your practice, you are a servant at heart
Wayne LowryAnd one of the things that I admire about you and your story is your willingness to serve the underprivileged and your passion about that. Can you tell me a little bit about Matthew's Hope Ministries?
(30:55):
Dr. John RothwellSure, Matthew’s Hope Ministries actually started in Orange County, Florida.
Dr. John RothwellFrom a pastor, you know, former addict who saw a need for serving the homeless community
Dr. John Rothwelland one of the biggest challenges he had with them was providing them medical care while staying outside of the federal government in federal grant money and stuff like that.
(31:23):
Dr. John RothwellHe didn't want them to dictate the different things if he was going to accept money from them.
Dr. John RothwellUnlike Shepherd’s Hope, which is where I did my doctorate.
Dr. John RothwellSo I built a radiology center as my doctorate project, saving Advent Health and Orlando Health about $6.4 million their first year that this radiology center was.
(31:45):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, Matthew’s Hope expanded into Brevard County.
Dr. John RothwellI was writing a feasibility study to start a street clinic for homeless veterans.
Dr. John RothwellAnd in doing the feasibility, it wasn't feasible.
Dr. John RothwellSo I was kind of crushed. You know, there was a dream gone down. But you know, I have a strong faith.
Dr. John RothwellGod's like, look, dude, you don't need another company.
(32:08):
Dr. John RothwellWhat you need to do is work with someone else and just love on people. Just serve people.
Dr. John RothwellLove them, encourage them,.
Dr. John Rothwellempower them, and Matthew’s Hope’s motto is “help us help them help themselves.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they have these programs that help the homeless transition outside of homelessness. And so Island Direct Primary Care actually runs the clinic for their guests.
(32:38):
Dr. John RothwellWe don't call them homeless. We call them guests.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're our guest Tuesdays and Thursdays, they get a hot shower, they get a haircut, they get food. These kinds of things.
Dr. John RothwellAnd then we provide medical care for them.
Wayne LowryWow, that's amazing.
Wayne LowryBut you don't stop there.
Wayne LowryYou're also involved in medical missions in Guatemala.
Dr. John RothwellSo medical missions in Guatemala, so I go there once a year.
(33:01):
Dr. John RothwellI'm hoping that I can financially support my team to support them twice a year, and that would be a goal. I'd like to be able to go with them twice a year and we do this.
Dr. John RothwellWe have a 5K for fetal medicine.
Dr. John RothwellLast week we had a 5K for autism.
(33:22):
Dr. John RothwellYou know, if someone asks “John, what's your financial goal?” I want to make enough money to give away, right?
Dr. John RothwellSo it's all about giving it away for me.
Dr. John RothwellYour ‘why’ has to be right. For me, again, faith is an extremely important thing for me.
Dr. John RothwellIt’s glorifying God.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so that's where my focus is.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so.
Dr. John RothwellWe do a lot of service here, so when we talk about our organization being propped by two pillars,
(33:47):
Dr. John RothwellIt's got family and community, not Island Direct Primary Care, not my other direct primary care practice that I'm not going to talk about. And the other pillar would be to be loving, encouraging, and empowering.
Dr. John RothwellSo I think if we do those things and we keep that as our primary focus.
Dr. John RothwellThen we don't lose focus of our ‘why’ and we don't lose focus for the original intention of direct primary care, which I think is, you know, going to be some of the challenges as you see different people entering the direct primary care market space.
(34:18):
Wayne LowryLet’s take a quick break to talk about ScalebySEO.com
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Wayne LowryBut here's the thing, patients can't sign up if they can't find you. That's where Scale by SEO comes in.
Wayne LowryWe help DPC clinics get seen where people are searching.
Wayne LowrySo you're not just waiting for word of mouth referrals with the right SEO strategy, your practice becomes the obvious choice when people are looking for better healthcare options. If you're not showing up where they're searching, you're missing out.
(34:50):
Wayne LowryBe visible. Get found.
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Wayne LowryDon't leave growth to chance.
Wayne LowryVisit scalebyseo.com today and let's get your clinic in front of the right people.
Wayne LowrySo I caught that.
Wayne LowryI caught that in the middle of that.
Wayne LowryOh, and that one thing I'm not going to talk about. You think I'm gonna let that go?
Wayne LowryNo, we're gonna circle back on that.
(35:13):
Wayne LowrySo looking into the future, you're an entrepreneur by trade.
Wayne LowryAnd obviously you can't talk about it.
Wayne LowrySo I understand.
Wayne LowryI understand you can't tell us about this new secret project that you're working on, but what can you tell us about the future of John and what John's going to be up to?
(35:37):
Dr. John RothwellSo I think you have two types of entrepreneurs that enter the direct primary care market.
Dr. John RothwellYou have your traditional DPCs who want to get out of the system.
Dr. John RothwellThey want a quality of life. They want work-life balance and then you have your Clint Flanagans, right? Clint's amazing.
(36:00):
Dr. John RothwellSo you know, I actually had the privilege of being a next era affiliate.
Dr. John RothwellEric Crawl as well over Persona Health.
Dr. John RothwellAgain, I have the privilege of being an affiliate for him, with the second Harvest Food Bank.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so there's different people who have different visions on where can we take direct primary care.
Dr. John RothwellThere’s some people that are anti-corporate, there's some people that are corporate.
(36:25):
Dr. John RothwellSo right now in the change of the administration, we're seeing a lot of potential change, a lot of verbiage. I think if you look at minute 55 of Robert Kennedy’s congressional trials.
Dr. John RothwellYou know, testimony on early on where he talks about direct primary care specifically.
(36:50):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so if we consider the different areas within our communities.
Dr. John RothwellWhere direct primary care can fit greater than a small independent practice. That's where I'm looking at. And so where can the sum...
(37:11):
Dr. John RothwellWhat's the saying?
Dr. John RothwellYou know, the sum is greater than its part?
Wayne LowryBecause of its parts, sure, why not?
Dr. John RothwellYeah, something like that, you know.
Wayne LowryWe'll just trademark that. Whatever you just said, let's just trademark it and put it on a mug and call it ours.
Dr. John RothwellSo. But my point being is I'm not going to just have Island Direct Primary Care, direct primary care movement is much greater than myself.
(37:34):
Dr. John RothwellAnd you know, when I leave this earth I want everyone saying that, “John did everything he could to reach as many people as he could by providing access to the greatest amount of health care he could.”
Wayne LowryYeah. So what are you seeing as far as you know with your practice and others in the area?
(38:00):
Wayne LowryHow are the brokers? The advisors? The benefit directors?
Wayne LowryHow are they starting to recognize DPC in your area? 'cause you know, it depends on what part of the country you are.
Wayne LowrySome places they're starting to respond
Wayne LowryWe've got some clinics in my area that have been built around some cities and some visionary leadership, and one of the neighboring cities here.
(38:29):
Wayne LowryAnd others that are like hitting their head against a brick wall to try to get some traction on DPC.
Wayne LowryHow is it over on your part? In your neck of the woods?
Dr. John RothwellOh, it's horrible. Wayne Lowry On your peninsula? On your peninsula?
Dr. John RothwellOn our peninsula.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm part of the BNI group. My marketing person is another part of BNI Group and so we both have someone who is an advisor or broker in our groups.
(38:55):
Dr. John RothwellAnd one of them actually belongs to a hybrid organization.
Dr. John RothwellAn organization that started as DPC, but they couldn't make it work, so they started taking insurance.
Wayne LowryOh yeah. Dr. John Rothwell OK. And so…
Wayne LowryWithout saying who they are. I'm pretty sure I know who they are.
Dr. John RothwellYeah. Dr. John Rothwell So that being said, they ended up…
(39:20):
Dr. John RothwellYes. So they've been zero help other than coming in here and going with me to help Rosen Health meeting with Carolyn Grant over at Rosen Health. We had a meeting there. And on the surface, they get it. But deep down inside it’s not making them any money.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're not driving that direction.
Dr. John RothwellMost of the advisors and brokers here are really focused on the consumer as an individual and not on businesses.
(39:48):
Dr. John RothwellSo I found it extremely challenging to penetrate that.
Dr. John RothwellNow, that being said, I currently in just the 1st of March
Dr. John RothwellWe're doing a 30-60-90 day plan, an operational plan that focuses on specifically HR directors and benefits advisors and brokers.
(40:10):
Dr. John RothwellSo we'll see how that comes out. And so that consists of everything from videos to emails to whatever marketing materials that we can get in front of them.
Dr. John RothwellTo see if we can't get those business opportunities again, I have about 50 employers as customers. And so I think it's a big market here, especially with the federal government.
(40:33):
Dr. John RothwellBut it's still very, very challenging here now.
Dr. John RothwellSo I've mentored 3 DPCs in my community.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're my competitors.
Dr. John RothwellInteresting enough, what they didn't listen to me on was pricing.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm actually about 30 to 40% more than they are from a membership perspective.
(40:55):
Dr. John RothwellThat's always fun, but they’re still not the size as we are.
Dr. John RothwellNot that size matters.
Wayne LowryWell, I think when you're talking about growth and sustainability, there's obviously… you can only take on so much.
Wayne LowryAnd so as you continue to grow and expand, have you started entering any conversations about someone to slide into your practice to help you take on more patients.
(41:25):
Dr. John RothwellSo I have three other providers.
Wayne LowryOh wow. OK.
Dr. John RothwellSo yeah, no.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I'm constantly interviewing. So I have my first physicians coming on board in June.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I have two nurse practitioners in-waiting for the Melbourne office.
(41:46):
Dr. John RothwellAnd I have someone that's wanting to work with me, because I would say nobody works for me.
Dr. John RothwellPeople work with me, waiting to go up into Titusville. And so in this office, just on the island alone, we already have 3 practitioners and so…
Dr. John RothwellWell there’s 660,000 people in our community
Wayne LowrySo if someones listening to this podcast or thinking about making a change, thinking about leaving traditional healthcare and getting in a DPC space and they're sitting in five feet of snow right now, what would you tell them?
(42:16):
Wayne LowrySend a resume?
Dr. John RothwellCome on down if you don't want the entrepreneurial piece in business acumen or entrepreneurial spirits, not your jam.
Dr. John RothwellI'm here. If you move down to this area, I'm here.
Dr. John RothwellThe only thing I don't do anymore is…
Wayne LowryMake sure of the competition? Dr. John Rothwell I do pretty much everything for… no, no.
(42:38):
Dr. John RothwellLook, I can't educate 660,000 people.
Wayne LowryYeah
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I mean, you have the podcast, this is new for you
Dr. John RothwellYou came from a different organization and you're still pushing to educate the communities on DPC because you know how much it’s needed.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I do too.
(42:59):
Dr. John RothwellAnd I also know that most people don't have my same business acumen or my entrepreneurial spirit.
Dr. John RothwellSo if they come in and they go to a community that has 16,000 people and they get 500.
Dr. John RothwellAnd they're making a quarter $1,000,000 a year and they have a little business, they're happy.
Dr. John RothwellRight? And there's still 644,000 people more to go, right?
(43:23):
Dr. John RothwellI mean, how many more do I need, right?
Dr. John RothwellAnd so I'm not worried about competition and this is why I have the conversation with MDs, DOs, and NPs, and PAs, we are our own people, we are our own person.
Dr. John RothwellPeople are going to like the way you provide care.
Dr. John RothwellPeople are going to not like the way you provide care.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so there's someone for someone, right?
(43:47):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they need choice. Wayne Lowry Got you.
Wayne LowrySo we're running out of time. And so I do have a couple more questions I want to ask you, if you were to give one piece of advice to a listener.
Wayne LowryMaybe they're in a traditional healthcare setting. They’re looking at making some change
Wayne LowryWhat would you say as their first step?
(44:13):
Dr. John RothwellSo for me, my first step was how can I do this legally?
Dr. John RothwellAnd then the second step was how much work can I put in over the next two to three months so that I can just go all in.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so I was working in the ER and urgent care.
Dr. John RothwellI work 26 days.
Dr. John RothwellI would play four days of rugby, then I'd work 26 days. I'd play four days of rugby and then I put my notice in and I started on January 1st.
(44:39):
Dr. John RothwellNo second job, no nothing.
Dr. John RothwellI cut back on everything else. I went all in.
Wayne LowryThere you go. All in.
Wayne LowryHey. So we're gonna transition to a segment I call “Keeping It Reels”.
Wayne LowryThis section Im gonna ask a series of questions.
Wayne LowryI'm looking for those sound bites. John, I want these video clips that are gonna go viral.
(45:05):
Wayne LowryThat's gonna put Joe Rogan to shame 'cause he didn't bring you in first, OK?
Wayne LowryAll of these, I think 15-30 second response, something snappy.
Wayne LowryIf it's great, promise you'll go viral.
Wayne LowryIf it's bad, it'll still be on the podcast, so at least you have that.
Wayne LowrySo first off, for Keeping it Reels, if you could pick a superpower to make your DPC life easier, what would it be?
(45:29):
Dr. John RothwellI have it.
Dr. John RothwellIt's called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Wayne LowryLet's go. You and me both, brother.
Wayne LowryYou and me both.
Wayne LowryNext question, if you could snap your fingers and fix one thing in healthcare today, what would you pick?
Dr. John RothwellWoo, there's only one? There isn't just one thing in health care. It's a broken system, but I'll pick one: the money.
(45:56):
Wayne LowryPick one. The what?
Dr. John RothwellThe money.
Wayne LowryThe money?
Wayne LowryMore of it? less of it? Dr. John Rothwell Less of it, right?
Dr. John RothwellHealthcare costs too much.
Wayne LowryLast question in this segment, I want you to give us 1 fun fact from your military days that most folks don't know about you.
(46:20):
Dr. John RothwellFun fact from my military days that most people don't know about me…
Dr. John RothwellI was actually a soccer player for a Division Three team playing for the Nuremberg Organization. When I drove home and saw some guys kicking an oblong ball that did not look anything like a soccer ball.
(46:43):
Dr. John RothwellAnd that's how I got into rugby.
Wayne LowryThere you go. I'm glad you shared that 'cause for a moment there I was afraid I offended you. And I'm pretty sure you can beat me up.
Wayne LowrySo I'm really planning on chilling at the beach with you, not like hiding in fear of my life for here on.
Dr. John RothwellLet's go. Wayne Lowry So John, thank you so much for coming in today and sharing your story.
(47:07):
Wayne LowryI'd love to have you back, maybe as a panel.
Wayne LowryAs you know, in a future episode, I appreciate everything you do.
Wayne LowryLook forward to seeing you around the country somewhere. I know we're going to run into each other.
Wayne LowryI know that.
Wayne LowryAnd if you want to take the boat out, just let me know and I'll be there.
Dr. John RothwellHey, it's a 22-6 Grady White.
(47:29):
Dr. John RothwellBring yourself. Bring your family. However you want to do it, and we'll take it.
Dr. John RothwellWe'll watch the rockets from the back of the boat and we'll enjoy a few sticks and enjoy each other's company and we'll talk to DPC.
Wayne LowryThere you go and I'll bring the hot dogs because we need something nutritious.
Dr. John RothwellWe don't eat hot dogs here.
(47:51):
Wayne LowryAll right. That's it for today's episode of the Best DPC podcast.
Wayne LowryBig thanks to Doctor John Rothwell for joining us and sharing his amazing story from combat medic to DPC innovator with a whole lot of heart along the way. To learn more about his work, head over to IslandDPC.com and follow him on Instagram at IslandDPC, or LinkedIn at John W. Rothwell, III
(48:20):
Wayne LowryMake sure you find the right one.
Wayne LowryFollow him on LinkedIn. For more DPC goodness, please visit BestDPC.com.
Wayne LowryFollow us on social media, subscribe to us on YouTube.
Wayne LowryHey, we're doing this for you.
Wayne LowryHelp spread the message.
Wayne LowryIt doesn't take anything
Wayne LowryIt doesn't cost you anything to push a like, comment, and share. It doesn't cost anything to subscribe and download.
(48:42):
Wayne LowryAll of that will help us spread the word of DPC until next time keep pushing for the best in health care.
Wayne LowryBye bye.
Dr. John RothwellYou know, when I'm not running the DPC thing, I'm out there getting as much in as I can.
(00:05):
Wayne LowrySo when you say the volcanic region, you're not meaning like an active volcano, are you?
Dr. John RothwellI am. So, the active volcano is actually called El Fuego, and so his nickname is Puff.
Dr. John RothwellIt actually erupted about five years ago.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, while one of my mission teams was there, and so they were, it was getting ready to erupt.
(00:27):
Dr. John RothwellSo, they had to get out of the area and then, they got stuck at the airport for a few days waiting for the smoke to clear.
Wayne LowrySo, you think there's a good metaphor for direct primary care with an erupting volcano? Can you make a metaphor for me?
Dr. John RothwellI think that is it right?
Dr. John RothwellDirect primary care exploding into the health system like a volcano in Italy.
(00:54):
Wayne LowryThere you go. All right.
Wayne LowryWell, I think that Pompeii. No, wait, everybody died there. Dr. John Rothwell Pompeii. Right.
Wayne LowryDon't think we want that one.
Dr. John RothwellWe don't.
Wayne LowryHello and welcome to the Best DPC podcast the World's #1 podcast covering all things direct primary care.
(01:22):
Wayne LowryI'm your host, Wayne Lowery.
Wayne LowryI'm not a doctor, but I've got the cure for your boredom.
Wayne LowryDirect Primary Care talk. If that doesn't cure it, nothing will.
Wayne LowryToday, I am thrilled to have with me a guest that I met a couple years ago in San Diego, CA and actually met him.
Wayne LowryI think we were both waiting for an Uber and the rest is history.
(01:45):
Wayne LowryAnd so we have been in contact ever since.
Wayne LowryAnd so I was really excited to have him on the podcast.
Wayne LowryDoctor John Rothwell is with us is a combat veteran, 35 year rugby player and the founder of Island Direct Primary Care, where he is blending traditional and functional medicine to change lives..
Wayne LowryHe also is a champion for veterans and the underserved with the heart for service that shines through everything he does.
(02:11):
Wayne LowryOh, and he also has a little bit of a mystery project, which I promise to try to get to the bottom of, although he told me,
Wayne LowryHe's not going to tell me what he's doing in stealth mode, but maybe we can get some hints and figure it out ourselves.
Wayne LowrySo before we dive into his incredible story from the battlefield to the exam room, I want to explore how he is shaking up healthcare with DPC.
(02:36):
Wayne LowryLet's get started and get to know the man behind the mission. So welcome, John.
Dr. John RothwellHey, thanks Wayne..
Dr. John RothwellThanks for having me. And it's good to catch up after the past couple of years.
Dr. John RothwellLots of growth since then for the direct private care movement.
Wayne LowryA lot of great things are happening and you're a busy man .
Dr. John RothwellHey, you know, it's no rest for the weary.
(02:58):
Wayne LowryWell, so one thing I have to ask, I mean this is before we get into like the real serious questions, I do need to ask, have you read any books lately?
Dr. John RothwellOh wow.
Wayne LowryI mean, you only have an incomplete wall of every book that's ever been written right behind you.
Wayne LowryLike you know, you know, you're talking to a man, a learned man. When you see that many books behind him.
(03:20):
Wayne LowryThen let's look at how many books I got.
Wayne LowryI got like 7 books and a couple of those are just props.
Dr. John RothwellSo I have a couple goals this year.
Dr. John RothwellIt's not to read 3 or 4 books at one time, but to read 1.
Dr. John RothwellI'm compromising one for, I think they're all fun, but one that's kind of somewhat fictional and I like military history so most of my fun books are a blend of factual history with some fictional characters.
(03:49):
Dr. John RothwellAnd then of course, naturally, I think being in healthcare, if you're going to be in the front of the movement, if you're going to be in front of healthcare, you always have to be educating yourself.
Dr. John RothwellSo, I always have some kind of book like “Outlive” or “Goodness Gracious”
Dr. John RothwellAny of the functional health type books that are talking about, you know, gut health and dysbiosis or DNA. So right now, I'm reading a few things on genes and genetics and their influence on people's longevity.
(04:21):
Dr. John RothwellTo be a business entrepreneur, right?
Dr. John RothwellWe're talking about marketing and running companies.
Wayne LowrySo let me ask you, So you're doing some deep dive in longevity. I'm 42 years old. Can you make me live to 142?
Wayne LowryI think 120 is not quite enough and I think if we hit like 180 to 200, I might get bored.
(04:43):
Dr. John RothwellI think 140 is a long time, but you know, I think there was a lady in France that thought she was going to die young and a guy offered to buy her apartment.
Dr. John RothwellAnd she said she'd sell it to him when she died.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so he bought the apartment. She got to live there for free, and she lived to be 120 years old. And she actually outlived him.
(05:05):
Dr. John RothwellSo, that's interesting.
Dr. John RothwellI don't think any of us can really tell how long longevity is.
Dr. John RothwellI think the most important thing is can you live healthy long?
Dr. John RothwellSo, do you have a real health span with your increased lifespan?
Wayne LowrySo obviously part of that is a good diet and lots of exercise. So for a man who has been playing rugby for 35 years, tell me a little bit about that.
(05:33):
Wayne LowryHow are you still actively involved in such a physical sport?
Dr. John RothwellSure. So here at Island Direct Primary Care, we actually talk about nutrition as fuel versus diet and we don't talk about exercise, but we talk about movement and more specifically functional movement and moving in your daily life whether it's working in your yard or working in your extracurricular activities.
(05:58):
Dr. John RothwellRugby demands a tremendous amount of physical fitness, emotional fitness and mental fitness. And so, you know, taking that holistic approach there has kind of really helped me, my military background.
Dr. John RothwellI stopped playing competitive men's rugby at 47 so I'm going to be 55 and so I stopped playing at 54 because I have probably—I think it's 9 herniations and 15 bulging discs.
(06:29):
Wayne LowryIs that a record? I’m not a doctor.
Dr. John RothwellI have no clue, but I want to be able to enjoy the rest of my life and hike and travel and stuff like that with my spouse, Wendy. And so it was time to hang up the boots. I still coach. I’m the team chaplain, I'm the team trainer.
(06:50):
Dr. John RothwellWe have 4 physicians, MD's and DO's that work emergency medicine on the team, but you know being a doc and that's the military term for medics in Corman. I do all that too.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm the guy suturing everybody up on the sideline.
Wayne LowryWow.
Wayne LowryYou know, I will tell you that I've always been fascinated with rugby.
Wayne LowryI kind of wish it would take off more as a main sport in the US. I think it'd be a lot of fun. Unfortunately, where I live, there's a lot of soccer and on one hand you got rugby players who are like in the pit. They're like fighting against each other and I don't know, biting or whatever they do. And like scrambling and like doing everything and no complaints.
(07:30):
Wayne LowrySoccer players, the wind shifts in a different direction, they fall down, grab their legs so…
Wayne LowryTo me, rugby is far superior as a national option in my opinion, than soccer. Not my hot political take.
Dr. John RothwellActually we were at the national championship in Austin, so I know you're still in Texas, right?
Wayne LowryYeah. Yes, I am.
(07:51):
Dr. John RothwellYeah. And so we had the national championship in Texas last year. And so my home club, where I'm the team trainer, actually went—we actually lost to Austin in the last 90 seconds of the game to go to the national championship finals.
Wayne LowryOh, man. I never made it out of district and I was homeschooled, so my sister beat me at every activity.
(08:19):
Wayne LowrySo you started your career off as a flight medic in the army.
Wayne LowryYou want to talk a little bit about that and how that shaped maybe your perspective in your view of direct primary care?
Dr. John RothwellYeah. You know, in the military you have lots of training, lots of opportunities to get the experience to be autonomous and so you know, that has its risks, right? Because of the scope of practice and these kind of things when you're in an infantry environment or when you're out on a helicopter, you kind of have to be able to adapt and overcome. And really, truly know what you're doing from an emergency perspective.
(08:56):
Dr. John RothwellSo, being an EMT paramedic early on in my career afforded me that opportunity to gain that experience.
Dr. John RothwellWhat's interesting though is, you know, we had 468 guys in my unit and we had no MD or DO.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we're stuck in the middle of nowhere.
(09:19):
Dr. John RothwellAnd we had to kind of make the call, get a flight surgeon that we reported to and that was kind of like our supervising physician.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they kind of set things up for me to want to do the most I can for the people that I'm working with.
Dr. John RothwellSo that's kind of where I kicked it off.
Dr. John RothwellI survived the Middle East and came home, went to college and that's where the road began.
(09:45):
Wayne LowrySo you went to college, you went to UCF.
Wayne LowryTell us about that experience and how's your football team this year?
Dr. John RothwellOh, goodness. So yeah…
Dr. John RothwellI had to do that a couple times because I was on the rugby team.
Dr. John RothwellBut so I got my nursing degree from University of Central Florida, my bachelor's, master's and my doctorate there.
(10:08):
Dr. John RothwellI was faculty for seven years.
Dr. John RothwellMy primary focus was health promotions, population health management, taking some doctorate students through their dissertation and on health, physical assessment, diagnostic reasoning and regarding our football team.
Dr. John RothwellI sit on the 50 yard line for season tickets and so we're kind of hoping that Scott Frost is able to come back and do the same thing he did the first time he was here.
(10:39):
Dr. John RothwellBut either way, it's just good sports and you know, I believe in the university and what its mission is.
Dr. John RothwellMatter of fact, one of the things that I will share is we just announced our first endowed scholarship for University of Central Florida for nurse entrepreneurs. And so this is a focus on how to help nurses get into the workforce from an entrepreneurial perspective.
(11:07):
Wayne LowryThat's an awesome program.
Wayne LowryI think it's going to make a lot of—hopefully with your influence, it'll push more people towards the DPC space.
Dr. John RothwellThat's the goal.
Wayne LowryNice. So you're talking about being in a combat situation without an MD around for some of that experience.
Wayne LowryHow did that, in your mind, influence how you deal specifically with patients?
(11:31):
Wayne Lowry'Cause, I'm sure you're seeing patients that—you may have somebody come in that has never been to a doctor before, you know? And they're rougher around the edges and they're fearful, they lash.
Wayne LowryI'd imagine there might be some of that from your past experience. So, how does that kind of tie into your doctor-patient relationship?
(11:53):
Dr. John RothwellThat's a great question, Wayne.
Dr. John RothwellSo you have nurse practitioners and physician assistants who have very similar roles, although their education is different. I mean, you have your medical doctor and your Doctor of Osteopathic medicine.
Dr. John RothwellI know we weren't going to go down that road because it's not a kind of a us versus them thing. It's really a scope of practice thing.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, what combat environment taught me was you need to know what you don't know and work within that scope of practice. And so, in our practice—I have 3 nurse practitioners working here at Island Direct primary care.
(12:31):
Dr. John RothwellWe've been open for five years.
Dr. John RothwellYou know, over 1000 patients and that's why I tell them the most important thing for you to know is what you don't know and then work within your scope of practice.
Dr. John RothwellBeing able to identify quickly what you don't know when a patient comes to the door—and we don't have a waiting room. So, it's when they come to the office, even before we go to the exam room and they start spilling their guts out because they got an hour with you.
(13:01):
Dr. John RothwellYou need to quickly be able to determine, “Is there something here that I you—What do I not know?” Because they do come to you for the acute care environment.
Dr. John RothwellThey're not going to urgent care. They're not going to the ER. So someone comes in and their tummy hurts, you need to be able to triage that abdominal pain or other things, by knowing your patient. So in the military, we know our unit, we know our soldiers, we live with them and the direct primary care environment, you know your patients.
(13:35):
Dr. John RothwellWe're always talking about knowing your patients by name, we know your kids, we know their dogs, their cats, their parents
Dr. John RothwellYou know, it's really old fashioned healthcare just in a time of modernization, right? Where we have technology as a resource.
Wayne LowryAnd so how is that life experience translated directly into your practice, Island Direct Primary Care or Island DPC?
(14:04):
Dr. John RothwellI mean, for me the translation is fairly simple.
Dr. John RothwellI just needed to—since I didn't know how to diagnose, prescribe and those things, I had to go back to school and get the right education and get the right experience. And so for me, I was working in the emergency room. I had a great medical director there that took me under his wing.
Dr. John RothwellI helped a physician grow his urgent care from three clinics to sixteen clinics. Now, he has 20 clinics.
(14:33):
Dr. John RothwellSo, it was kind of directly translating in knowing what you don't know, bringing it to the community and having the confidence to go out there and know that you need to do the right thing every single time within your scope of practice.
Wayne LowryI wanna take a quick break to talk about bestdpc.com.
(14:54):
Wayne LowryAre you a doctor looking to break free from the headaches of insurance and take control of your practice?
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(15:22):
Wayne LowryFind the best CPC doctors near.
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Wayne LowryVisit bestdvc.com today and see why Direct Primary Care is the future of medicine.
Wayne LowryThat's bestdpc.com because great health care should be simple, affordable and built around you.
Wayne LowryBut before the show, we talked a little bit about traditional medicine and more functional medicine and how you try to take a holistic approach and based on your life experience, how do you implement that in your practice?
(15:57):
Dr. John RothwellThat's a great question, Wayne.
Dr. John RothwellFor me, when we talk about holistic health care and how we provide health care holistically, it's physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and financial wellness.
Dr. John RothwellSo, we kind of tried to address and make sure that we're knowledgeable on each patient's background when it comes to those “Five Pillars of Health”—is what I call them.
(16:23):
Dr. John RothwellThese are our 5 Pillars of Health. Tying it to functional medicine is interesting because you have traditional health care; there's lots of medicine that's prescribed. In functional medicine, there's all these trends and buzzwords like root cause medicine and then, they do all the supplement stuff. So, I kind of take issue with both of them.
(16:46):
Dr. John RothwellWe kind of look at ourselves as an integrative practice and an integrative is really just taking, “How does the physical health influence the mental health?”
Dr. John Rothwell“How does the patient respond emotionally?”
Dr. John RothwellYou know, “How do they respond spiritually?” and then of course, “What's the financial implications of it?” And so, I remember early on, when we opened Island Direct Primary Care, I had a patient come to me who was complaining of anxiety and he never had anxiety before.
(17:14):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we tried a number of different things .
Dr. John RothwellI won't get into the finer details, but we went from supplements to traditional medicine and things worked for about 3 weeks at a time, and he goes, “Hey, doc, things worked about 3 weeks at a time and then it stops working. Why is that?”
Dr. John RothwellI said, “When are you going to tell me what's making you anxious?”
(17:37):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so when he did—what it boiled down to, he was a veteran. He was in college. He needed to refinance his house, he was told he couldn’t.
Dr. John RothwellHe had a wife in college and he had three children. And so, his anxiety was he was going to be able to provide for his family.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I introduced him to a mortgage lender.
Dr. John RothwellI never had to treat him for anxiety again.
(17:58):
Dr. John RothwellHe closed in two weeks.
Wayne LowrySo what you're saying is sometimes the best medicine is getting a good mortgage rate.
Dr. John RothwellYeah, right? I think sometimes the best medicine is just spending time listening to your patients.
Wayne LowryYeah, so in your practice, I know a lot of DPC’s really promote the amount of time they have in a general setting like appointment time.
(18:23):
Wayne LowryWhat's your average appointment time?
Dr. John RothwellOne hour.
Wayne LowryOne hour. Wow. Can you block off like an hour plus or how do you block that off and keep the patient schedule intact.
Dr. John RothwellSo, we let our patients schedule their own appointments online. Our virtual health appointments are automatically 30 minutes. Our procedures are automatically 30 minutes. And then, the office visits follow up visits, new patient appointments, all those are automatically set at one hour.
(18:59):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so realistically, if they're willing to embrace the technology, then they self schedule.
Of course, we have an office manager and operations manager and so they can call in and schedule that way as well.
Dr. John RothwellEvery nurse practitioner that I have in the practice has the same ability, and so I typically, I mean, I have 450 patients and I have anywhere between 10 and 15 free hours a week.
(19:25):
Dr. John RothwellAt least going into the week and that typically gets eaten up by acute care.
Wayne LowryGot you.
Wayne LowrySo you don't think we could eat up some of that on the beach, you and me?
Dr. John RothwellWe can, but I'd have to block it. “Is off,” and then I'm available through my virtual health app, right?
Wayne LowryWell, that's what I'm saying.
Wayne LowryYou can jump on the iPad and I'll just sit there at the beach, if that's OK.
(19:48):
Wayne LowrySo what is the weather there right now, by the way?
Wayne LowryHow is it? Dr. John Rothwell So it's about 73°.
Dr. John RothwellNo wind and the boat is ready to roll, man.
Dr. John RothwellWe’re going to go out on Saturday.
Wayne LowryI'll be there. So, just let me know where.
Wayne LowrySo let me ask you a question.
Wayne LowryYou're talking about them signing up or setting their appointment online. Tell me about your tech stack.
(20:13):
Wayne LowryWhat are you using tech wise for booking your appointments?
Wayne LowryI'm a tech nerd, so I always want to know what’s your tech stack?
Dr. John RothwellYeah, I love it.
Dr. John RothwellWhen I got mad at health care the first time and I left for 10 years, I did technology and then found my way back into healthcare.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I like tech stacks too. I started with Atlas. I ended up leaving Atlas because I really like the Hint membership management platform.
(20:42):
Dr. John RothwellSo I start off with Hint.
Dr. John RothwellI have Elation today, not married to them.
Dr. John RothwellI'm not happy with many of the EMR systems 'cause I'm a data nerd and I can't get enough data from any of the electronic medical records that I found.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I use spruce.
Dr. John RothwellAnd then we just started using Loom. And so, what I will do for patients who have normal labs or labs that you know are getting better and they might be on one medication or one supplement or something like that for that, I'll actually make a recording, you know, a five minute recording on Loom and send them that link. And that will keep them from doing—
(21:22):
Dr. John RothwellIt's still personal.
Dr. John RothwellBut it will keep them from making that 30 minute appointment follow up.
Wayne LowrySo basically you're doing an asynchronous appointment with Loom. You're saying, you're sitting there at 10:00 at night or whatever, going, “All right, let me let me clear off. Wayne's coming to town. We’re going to hit the boat. Let me clear off a couple of these appointments right now.”
(21:43):
Dr. John RothwellExactly. And so, you know, I come from the high speed data world when we were going from dial up to DSL. And so I believe in asynchronous and synchronous technologies and so we utilize that to the fullest.
Wayne LowryNow, what about? What about your day-to-day platform? Are you a Google guy?
Wayne LowryAre you a Microsoft Teams?
Wayne LowryWhat are you using for that?
(22:05):
Dr. John RothwellGoogle Drive.
Dr. John RothwellFor majority of our stuff, you know, I might Zoom for different meetings, you know, outside of the practice, specially in my veteran type stuff. I have a cybersecurity company too, so sometimes I will pretty much use zoom for that.
Dr. John RothwellI don't like Microsoft Teams.
(22:28):
Wayne LowryYeah. That seems like a podcast conversation for another day 'cause I wanna hear about your security team as well.
Wayne LowryI remember when we met that seemed like to be one of the topics was, “Hey, how many businesses do you run?”
Wayne LowrySo, that's really interesting.
Wayne LowryWell, so let me ask you back on your practice specific before we kind of move into some of your other passion projects.
(22:52):
Wayne LowryWhat would you say is really something that is just tangible that you've noticed being in direct primary care, maybe a success story or just something you see time and time again that gives you that, that fire to keep coming back to work, keep coming back to the office?
Wayne LowryWhat is it in particular that success that you've seen that just keeps you motivated?
(23:18):
Dr. John RothwellYou know, to be honest, I think it's two areas and they're not my greatest areas of…
Dr. John RothwellSo my population is between 25 and 44.
Dr. John RothwellAbout 34% of my population.
Dr. John RothwellAnother 34-35% between 45 and 64.
(23:39):
Dr. John RothwellIt's my elderly population and my pediatric population. I think actually brings me the greatest joy and keeps me passionate.
Dr. John RothwellA good example is I have a young family.
Dr. John RothwellMom is 28 years old.
Dr. John RothwellShe has a four year old, a 2 year old, and has a 2 month old and so and I've been with them since that baby was five days old, you know?
(24:04):
Dr. John RothwellSo I did the first baby well check. The four year old gets influenza.
Dr. John RothwellMom calls me.
Dr. John RothwellShe's, you know, scared and concerned because she has a 2 month old at home and there's always risk with young babies, especially if they're under the age of 90 days old.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we kind of set up a system, what I call a comfort system, for her because my moms have kind of a package.
(24:31):
Dr. John RothwellThey have an autoscope that connects to their phone that they can take pictures for me. They have it, you know, kind of like a remote patient monitoring type deal.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so every couple hours when you know the four year old would wake up and she'd take a rectal temperature, I would get an update, right?
Dr. John RothwellSo it was a long weekend for me, but she felt comfortable and her husband worked nights and that's how he provided for the family.
(25:01):
Dr. John RothwellThey were an entrepreneur, single income. And so just seeing how she would just was relaxed throughout the whole weekend, even though she was stressed.
Dr. John RothwellShe was comfortable with what we're doing here at Island Direct Primary Care that she wasn't rushing off to the emergency room. We had very clear guidelines on what to do when, you know, based off of temperature, based off of symptoms. And that just made me feel good.
(25:29):
Dr. John RothwellJust being able to make those young families feel comfortable.
Dr. John RothwellWithin their own capabilities, and I think moms are superheroes. And so letting Mom know that she's a superhero and that she has this. And even though her husband's away at work, she's going to be able to care for the family.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so that was super cool.
(25:50):
Dr. John RothwellOn the flip side of that, you know it's those 90 year old patients, those 94 year old patients, the 96 year old ones where they're kind of grouchy, they don't want to go to the doctor, they have all these appointments to go to
Dr. John RothwellAnd all these specialists and so when you get involved because the family is just sick and tired of taking them to all these different appointments.
(26:12):
Dr. John RothwellNobody's happy.
Dr. John RothwellThey can't get to anywhere on time because you know, it's three weeks. It's one month. It's 45 days. By giving them direct primary care, they're getting the attention and support.
Dr. John RothwellThat they need and you know, one of the most beautiful moments that I had in my practice was I had a 96 year old female patient and she was end of life and we helped the family kind of make that determination.
(26:41):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we got a phone call and it said, “Hey, Doctor John, just want to let you know, she said she's not feeling it and she's tired.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd I said, “Cool, go sit next to her. Give her a hug and a kiss. Hold her hand. I'll be there at 5:30.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd so we left the office at 5:00 and at 5:30 we went to their house.
(27:04):
Dr. John RothwellAnd we sat with them and we held them and we held their hand and stuff like that. You can't get this outside of direct primary care.
Dr. John RothwellYou don't even get this at concierge medicine, MD VIP, signature MD and all that.
Dr. John RothwellYou don't get that. You get a phone number and you get the dude that has the business.
Dr. John RothwellIn direct primary care, I don't care if you're a physician, MD, DO, NP, PA.
(27:25):
Dr. John RothwellThat's the kind of care of experience that you get in direct primary care and so you can see the passion in my voice as I get excited about that.
Wayne LowryThat is awesome.
Wayne LowryYeah. I mean think about it. When I try to explain direct primary care to someone who doesn't understand.
Wayne LowryI say, you remember Little House on the Prairie. Or do you remember way back in the 1930s and 40s when the doctor would come to your house when they would know your name?
(27:56):
Wayne LowryDo you remember It's A Wonderful Life when they call the doctor?
Wayne LowryThat is direct primary care.
Wayne LowryIt’s that relationship.
Wayne LowryYou know them and they know you. Wayne Lowry I think it's so cool when I see one of my providers. I mean, I'm so blessed like my daughter has a provider in TPC. I have a provider.
Wayne LowryWe see them at sport events around town. We see them at restaurants and they know us and they ask about us and they're checking up on us and that's just some of the most, you know…
(28:28):
Wayne LowryIs it more affordable for family? Yes .
Wayne LowryAnd that's key.
Wayne LowryThat's so important in this economy.
Wayne LowryBut at the end of the day, it's about that relationship and knowing you've got a provider or doctor that has your back.
Wayne LowryAnd so I'm glad to hear it come from you, because I already know you're a passionate person,
Wayne Lowrybut for the audience to know like this is real and the passion you get from that personal relationship is apparent in the way you describe it.
(29:01):
Dr. John RothwellAnd here's a cool thing. I started island direct primary care, we're on an island.
Dr. John RothwellIt's called Merritt Island.
Dr. John RothwellIt's really a peninsula and it's near the Space Center.
Dr. John RothwellSo the rockets go off every day in the background.
Dr. John RothwellShakes the practice. It’s super cool.
Dr. John RothwellI started my practice with the 1924 bag, doctor's bag, that I bought on Etsy.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I had a 1997 Jeep Wrangler without any doors, without any sides, had just a bikini top and I did home visits.
(29:32):
Wayne LowryOK. That just blows my mind.
Wayne LowryHere we are, the year 20.
Wayne LowryWhen did you start 2019-2020?
Wayne LowryWhen did you start the practice? Dr. John Rothwell Yeah. So yeah, 2019. And so starting to 2019. And so we're looking at buying our… we have our second place rented.
Dr. John RothwellDoing an over build right now.
Dr. John RothwellWe're putting in an offer on a building across the street and I'm looking for my third location right now.
(29:58):
Wayne LowryWow, look at you. From no doors on a Jeep to a multi clinic location and in the middle of that COVID.
Wayne LowrySo here you go.
Dr. John RothwellHere we go and a Jeep Rubicon, instead of the 1997 Jeep.
Dr. John RothwellThe COVID allowed me to get a 2020 Jeep Rubicon because they had a healthcare provider deal with Jeep and he had 0% interest, right?
(30:24):
Wayne LowryOh dude
Wayne LowrySo, I'm in.
Wayne LowryThere you go. There you go.
Wayne LowrySo I want to transition just a moment again. You're super passionate about what you do, but beyond just your practice, you are a servant at heart
Wayne LowryAnd one of the things that I admire about you and your story is your willingness to serve the underprivileged and your passion about that. Can you tell me a little bit about Matthew's Hope Ministries?
(30:55):
Dr. John RothwellSure, Matthew’s Hope Ministries actually started in Orange County, Florida.
Dr. John RothwellFrom a pastor, you know, former addict who saw a need for serving the homeless community
Dr. John Rothwelland one of the biggest challenges he had with them was providing them medical care while staying outside of the federal government in federal grant money and stuff like that.
(31:23):
Dr. John RothwellHe didn't want them to dictate the different things if he was going to accept money from them.
Dr. John RothwellUnlike Shepherd’s Hope, which is where I did my doctorate.
Dr. John RothwellSo I built a radiology center as my doctorate project, saving Advent Health and Orlando Health about $6.4 million their first year that this radiology center was.
(31:45):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, Matthew’s Hope expanded into Brevard County.
Dr. John RothwellI was writing a feasibility study to start a street clinic for homeless veterans.
Dr. John RothwellAnd in doing the feasibility, it wasn't feasible.
Dr. John RothwellSo I was kind of crushed. You know, there was a dream gone down. But you know, I have a strong faith.
Dr. John RothwellGod's like, look, dude, you don't need another company.
(32:08):
Dr. John RothwellWhat you need to do is work with someone else and just love on people. Just serve people.
Dr. John RothwellLove them, encourage them,.
Dr. John Rothwellempower them, and Matthew’s Hope’s motto is “help us help them help themselves.”
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they have these programs that help the homeless transition outside of homelessness. And so Island Direct Primary Care actually runs the clinic for their guests.
(32:38):
Dr. John RothwellWe don't call them homeless. We call them guests.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're our guest Tuesdays and Thursdays, they get a hot shower, they get a haircut, they get food. These kinds of things.
Dr. John RothwellAnd then we provide medical care for them.
Wayne LowryWow, that's amazing.
Wayne LowryBut you don't stop there.
Wayne LowryYou're also involved in medical missions in Guatemala.
Dr. John RothwellSo medical missions in Guatemala, so I go there once a year.
(33:01):
Dr. John RothwellI'm hoping that I can financially support my team to support them twice a year, and that would be a goal. I'd like to be able to go with them twice a year and we do this.
Dr. John RothwellWe have a 5K for fetal medicine.
Dr. John RothwellLast week we had a 5K for autism.
(33:22):
Dr. John RothwellYou know, if someone asks “John, what's your financial goal?” I want to make enough money to give away, right?
Dr. John RothwellSo it's all about giving it away for me.
Dr. John RothwellYour ‘why’ has to be right. For me, again, faith is an extremely important thing for me.
Dr. John RothwellIt’s glorifying God.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so that's where my focus is.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so.
Dr. John RothwellWe do a lot of service here, so when we talk about our organization being propped by two pillars,
(33:47):
Dr. John RothwellIt's got family and community, not Island Direct Primary Care, not my other direct primary care practice that I'm not going to talk about. And the other pillar would be to be loving, encouraging, and empowering.
Dr. John RothwellSo I think if we do those things and we keep that as our primary focus.
Dr. John RothwellThen we don't lose focus of our ‘why’ and we don't lose focus for the original intention of direct primary care, which I think is, you know, going to be some of the challenges as you see different people entering the direct primary care market space.
(34:18):
Wayne LowryLet’s take a quick break to talk about ScalebySEO.com
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(34:50):
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Wayne LowrySo I caught that.
Wayne LowryI caught that in the middle of that.
Wayne LowryOh, and that one thing I'm not going to talk about. You think I'm gonna let that go?
Wayne LowryNo, we're gonna circle back on that.
(35:13):
Wayne LowrySo looking into the future, you're an entrepreneur by trade.
Wayne LowryAnd obviously you can't talk about it.
Wayne LowrySo I understand.
Wayne LowryI understand you can't tell us about this new secret project that you're working on, but what can you tell us about the future of John and what John's going to be up to?
(35:37):
Dr. John RothwellSo I think you have two types of entrepreneurs that enter the direct primary care market.
Dr. John RothwellYou have your traditional DPCs who want to get out of the system.
Dr. John RothwellThey want a quality of life. They want work-life balance and then you have your Clint Flanagans, right? Clint's amazing.
(36:00):
Dr. John RothwellSo you know, I actually had the privilege of being a next era affiliate.
Dr. John RothwellEric Crawl as well over Persona Health.
Dr. John RothwellAgain, I have the privilege of being an affiliate for him, with the second Harvest Food Bank.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so there's different people who have different visions on where can we take direct primary care.
Dr. John RothwellThere’s some people that are anti-corporate, there's some people that are corporate.
(36:25):
Dr. John RothwellSo right now in the change of the administration, we're seeing a lot of potential change, a lot of verbiage. I think if you look at minute 55 of Robert Kennedy’s congressional trials.
Dr. John RothwellYou know, testimony on early on where he talks about direct primary care specifically.
(36:50):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so if we consider the different areas within our communities.
Dr. John RothwellWhere direct primary care can fit greater than a small independent practice. That's where I'm looking at. And so where can the sum...
(37:11):
Dr. John RothwellWhat's the saying?
Dr. John RothwellYou know, the sum is greater than its part?
Wayne LowryBecause of its parts, sure, why not?
Dr. John RothwellYeah, something like that, you know.
Wayne LowryWe'll just trademark that. Whatever you just said, let's just trademark it and put it on a mug and call it ours.
Dr. John RothwellSo. But my point being is I'm not going to just have Island Direct Primary Care, direct primary care movement is much greater than myself.
(37:34):
Dr. John RothwellAnd you know, when I leave this earth I want everyone saying that, “John did everything he could to reach as many people as he could by providing access to the greatest amount of health care he could.”
Wayne LowryYeah. So what are you seeing as far as you know with your practice and others in the area?
(38:00):
Wayne LowryHow are the brokers? The advisors? The benefit directors?
Wayne LowryHow are they starting to recognize DPC in your area? 'cause you know, it depends on what part of the country you are.
Wayne LowrySome places they're starting to respond
Wayne LowryWe've got some clinics in my area that have been built around some cities and some visionary leadership, and one of the neighboring cities here.
(38:29):
Wayne LowryAnd others that are like hitting their head against a brick wall to try to get some traction on DPC.
Wayne LowryHow is it over on your part? In your neck of the woods?
Dr. John RothwellOh, it's horrible. Wayne Lowry On your peninsula? On your peninsula?
Dr. John RothwellOn our peninsula.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm part of the BNI group. My marketing person is another part of BNI Group and so we both have someone who is an advisor or broker in our groups.
(38:55):
Dr. John RothwellAnd one of them actually belongs to a hybrid organization.
Dr. John RothwellAn organization that started as DPC, but they couldn't make it work, so they started taking insurance.
Wayne LowryOh yeah. Dr. John Rothwell OK. And so…
Wayne LowryWithout saying who they are. I'm pretty sure I know who they are.
Dr. John RothwellYeah. Dr. John Rothwell So that being said, they ended up…
(39:20):
Dr. John RothwellYes. So they've been zero help other than coming in here and going with me to help Rosen Health meeting with Carolyn Grant over at Rosen Health. We had a meeting there. And on the surface, they get it. But deep down inside it’s not making them any money.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're not driving that direction.
Dr. John RothwellMost of the advisors and brokers here are really focused on the consumer as an individual and not on businesses.
(39:48):
Dr. John RothwellSo I found it extremely challenging to penetrate that.
Dr. John RothwellNow, that being said, I currently in just the 1st of March
Dr. John RothwellWe're doing a 30-60-90 day plan, an operational plan that focuses on specifically HR directors and benefits advisors and brokers.
(40:10):
Dr. John RothwellSo we'll see how that comes out. And so that consists of everything from videos to emails to whatever marketing materials that we can get in front of them.
Dr. John RothwellTo see if we can't get those business opportunities again, I have about 50 employers as customers. And so I think it's a big market here, especially with the federal government.
(40:33):
Dr. John RothwellBut it's still very, very challenging here now.
Dr. John RothwellSo I've mentored 3 DPCs in my community.
Dr. John RothwellSo they're my competitors.
Dr. John RothwellInteresting enough, what they didn't listen to me on was pricing.
Dr. John RothwellSo I'm actually about 30 to 40% more than they are from a membership perspective.
(40:55):
Dr. John RothwellThat's always fun, but they’re still not the size as we are.
Dr. John RothwellNot that size matters.
Wayne LowryWell, I think when you're talking about growth and sustainability, there's obviously… you can only take on so much.
Wayne LowryAnd so as you continue to grow and expand, have you started entering any conversations about someone to slide into your practice to help you take on more patients.
(41:25):
Dr. John RothwellSo I have three other providers.
Wayne LowryOh wow. OK.
Dr. John RothwellSo yeah, no.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I'm constantly interviewing. So I have my first physicians coming on board in June.
Dr. John RothwellAnd I have two nurse practitioners in-waiting for the Melbourne office.
(41:46):
Dr. John RothwellAnd I have someone that's wanting to work with me, because I would say nobody works for me.
Dr. John RothwellPeople work with me, waiting to go up into Titusville. And so in this office, just on the island alone, we already have 3 practitioners and so…
Dr. John RothwellWell there’s 660,000 people in our community
Wayne LowrySo if someones listening to this podcast or thinking about making a change, thinking about leaving traditional healthcare and getting in a DPC space and they're sitting in five feet of snow right now, what would you tell them?
(42:16):
Wayne LowrySend a resume?
Dr. John RothwellCome on down if you don't want the entrepreneurial piece in business acumen or entrepreneurial spirits, not your jam.
Dr. John RothwellI'm here. If you move down to this area, I'm here.
Dr. John RothwellThe only thing I don't do anymore is…
Wayne LowryMake sure of the competition? Dr. John Rothwell I do pretty much everything for… no, no.
(42:38):
Dr. John RothwellLook, I can't educate 660,000 people.
Wayne LowryYeah
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I mean, you have the podcast, this is new for you
Dr. John RothwellYou came from a different organization and you're still pushing to educate the communities on DPC because you know how much it’s needed.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so, I do too.
(42:59):
Dr. John RothwellAnd I also know that most people don't have my same business acumen or my entrepreneurial spirit.
Dr. John RothwellSo if they come in and they go to a community that has 16,000 people and they get 500.
Dr. John RothwellAnd they're making a quarter $1,000,000 a year and they have a little business, they're happy.
Dr. John RothwellRight? And there's still 644,000 people more to go, right?
(43:23):
Dr. John RothwellI mean, how many more do I need, right?
Dr. John RothwellAnd so I'm not worried about competition and this is why I have the conversation with MDs, DOs, and NPs, and PAs, we are our own people, we are our own person.
Dr. John RothwellPeople are going to like the way you provide care.
Dr. John RothwellPeople are going to not like the way you provide care.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so there's someone for someone, right?
(43:47):
Dr. John RothwellAnd so they need choice. Wayne Lowry Got you.
Wayne LowrySo we're running out of time. And so I do have a couple more questions I want to ask you, if you were to give one piece of advice to a listener.
Wayne LowryMaybe they're in a traditional healthcare setting. They’re looking at making some change
Wayne LowryWhat would you say as their first step?
(44:13):
Dr. John RothwellSo for me, my first step was how can I do this legally?
Dr. John RothwellAnd then the second step was how much work can I put in over the next two to three months so that I can just go all in.
Dr. John RothwellAnd so I was working in the ER and urgent care.
Dr. John RothwellI work 26 days.
Dr. John RothwellI would play four days of rugby, then I'd work 26 days. I'd play four days of rugby and then I put my notice in and I started on January 1st.
(44:39):
Dr. John RothwellNo second job, no nothing.
Dr. John RothwellI cut back on everything else. I went all in.
Wayne LowryThere you go. All in.
Wayne LowryHey. So we're gonna transition to a segment I call “Keeping It Reels”.
Wayne LowryThis section Im gonna ask a series of questions.
Wayne LowryI'm looking for those sound bites. John, I want these video clips that are gonna go viral.
(45:05):
Wayne LowryThat's gonna put Joe Rogan to shame 'cause he didn't bring you in first, OK?
Wayne LowryAll of these, I think 15-30 second response, something snappy.
Wayne LowryIf it's great, promise you'll go viral.
Wayne LowryIf it's bad, it'll still be on the podcast, so at least you have that.
Wayne LowrySo first off, for Keeping it Reels, if you could pick a superpower to make your DPC life easier, what would it be?
(45:29):
Dr. John RothwellI have it.
Dr. John RothwellIt's called Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.
Wayne LowryLet's go. You and me both, brother.
Wayne LowryYou and me both.
Wayne LowryNext question, if you could snap your fingers and fix one thing in healthcare today, what would you pick?
Dr. John RothwellWoo, there's only one? There isn't just one thing in health care. It's a broken system, but I'll pick one: the money.
(45:56):
Wayne LowryPick one. The what?
Dr. John RothwellThe money.
Wayne LowryThe money?
Wayne LowryMore of it? less of it? Dr. John Rothwell Less of it, right?
Dr. John RothwellHealthcare costs too much.
Wayne LowryLast question in this segment, I want you to give us 1 fun fact from your military days that most folks don't know about you.
(46:20):
Dr. John RothwellFun fact from my military days that most people don't know about me…
Dr. John RothwellI was actually a soccer player for a Division Three team playing for the Nuremberg Organization. When I drove home and saw some guys kicking an oblong ball that did not look anything like a soccer ball.
(46:43):
Dr. John RothwellAnd that's how I got into rugby.
Wayne LowryThere you go. I'm glad you shared that 'cause for a moment there I was afraid I offended you. And I'm pretty sure you can beat me up.
Wayne LowrySo I'm really planning on chilling at the beach with you, not like hiding in fear of my life for here on.
Dr. John RothwellLet's go. Wayne Lowry So John, thank you so much for coming in today and sharing your story.
(47:07):
Wayne LowryI'd love to have you back, maybe as a panel.
Wayne LowryAs you know, in a future episode, I appreciate everything you do.
Wayne LowryLook forward to seeing you around the country somewhere. I know we're going to run into each other.
Wayne LowryI know that.
Wayne LowryAnd if you want to take the boat out, just let me know and I'll be there.
Dr. John RothwellHey, it's a 22-6 Grady White.
(47:29):
Dr. John RothwellBring yourself. Bring your family. However you want to do it, and we'll take it.
Dr. John RothwellWe'll watch the rockets from the back of the boat and we'll enjoy a few sticks and enjoy each other's company and we'll talk to DPC.
Wayne LowryThere you go and I'll bring the hot dogs because we need something nutritious.
Dr. John RothwellWe don't eat hot dogs here.
(47:51):
Wayne LowryAll right. That's it for today's episode of the Best DPC podcast.
Wayne LowryBig thanks to Doctor John Rothwell for joining us and sharing his amazing story from combat medic to DPC innovator with a whole lot of heart along the way. To learn more about his work, head over to IslandDPC.com and follow him on Instagram at IslandDPC, or LinkedIn at John W. Rothwell, III
(48:20):
Wayne LowryMake sure you find the right one.
Wayne LowryFollow him on LinkedIn. For more DPC goodness, please visit BestDPC.com.
Wayne LowryFollow us on social media, subscribe to us on YouTube.
Wayne LowryHey, we're doing this for you.
Wayne LowryHelp spread the message.
Wayne LowryIt doesn't take anything
Wayne LowryIt doesn't cost you anything to push a like, comment, and share. It doesn't cost anything to subscribe and download.
(48:42):
Wayne LowryAll of that will help us spread the word of DPC until next time keep pushing for the best in health care.
Wayne LowryBye bye.
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