From Frustration to Innovation: Command Family Medicine’s Journey to Redefine Primary Care

The Inspiration
The inspiration for Command Family Medicine came from frustration Dr. Luke Van Kirk felt with primary care in the hospital system during his residency. He could never spend much time with patients because there were always more patients waiting to see him. This stress and pressure inspired him to find another way. His cousin had started a direct primary care clinic after dealing with billing complications in his prior practice, and it was working well and made sense for him. So, Dr. Luke started his own direct primary care clinic nine years ago.

Filling a Need
Command Family Medicine changes how primary care is delivered by making it more accessible and affordable while giving the patient more autonomy. This business model allows practitioners to spend more time with patients.
An example of services offered at Command Family Medicine include in-house x-rays, skin biopsies, platelet rich plasma (PRP), regenerative injections for arthritic joints and tendon injuries, and laser treatments for hair removal, varicose veins, toe fungus and rosacea.

Growth Moving Forward
Command Family Medicine has over 2,200 patients and is growing, which made it necessary to add a second location in Branson. Currently, there are two doctors, one physician assistant, and a nurse practitioner in Springfield, and one doctor and a nurse practitioner in Branson.
Command Family Medicine enjoys working with businesses to bring down their healthcare costs. In fact, businesses account for 50% of Command Family patients. Using Command Family Medicine means a business owner with a self-funded insurance plan can provide a high-quality primary care option to employees. This saves the business owner money by avoiding unnecessary Urgent Care and ER visits on top of the wholesale meds, labs and procedures, making it a benefit to use Command Family Medicine as a provider.
“Including the monthly payment fees for employees to use Command Family Medicine, we reduced one local business's healthcare spend by 19% in one year!” Van Kirk stated.
Command Family Medicine is the clinic that provides the most value. In addition to monthly employee memberships, businesses can choose to pay a percentage of the prescription cost, lab fees, in-house procedures, memberships for spouses and dependents and still save on healthcare costs.
Saving business owners money isn’t the only benefit to using Command Family Medicine. Their preventative treatments keep employees healthy, reducing missed days at work due to doctors’ visits and sick days. In turn, this decreases how long an employee might need to be off work to heal.

The Investment
Dr. Luke started Command Family Medicine with around $30,000. The cost to start a second location in Branson, including practitioner licensing, hiring high-quality staff, and the necessary electronic technology has significantly increased Dr. Luke’s investment.

Serving the Community
Dr. Luke Van Kirk spends time in the community serving on the board of ARC of the Ozarks and participates on the committee that plans for Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). The Command Family Medicine staff has volunteered at Convoy of Hope helping pack up supplies.
The Branson location volunteers for a free clinic, so Command Family Medicine in Springfield sends extra supplies to support those efforts.
To sign up as a member for Command Family Medicine, go to www.command.md or give their offices a call.