Business Matters 2020 | Page 38

Medicine Redefined CLINE FAMILY MEDICINE – WHERE PATIENTS COME FIRST I STORY BY LEON ALDRIDGE | PHOTOS BY LEON ALDRIDGE AND GINIA HOOPER f one simply reads the words “Welcome to Cline Family Medicine where patients come first” on the Center health care provider’s website, it may seem at first like a standard marketing phrase. But it takes only a few minutes spent with them to quickly discover that those words are not marketing hype at all, they are a commitment. “Hospitality is in our DNA,” Mark A. Cline will tell you with sincerity. Dr. Cline is a board-certified Diplomate of the American Board of Family Medicine and has been in private practice as a family physician in Nacogdoches since finishing his residency training in 1997. He expanded his health care reach to Center in 2012 with the facility on Hurst Street. “We strive to be more than a clinical 38 Business MATTERS | 2020 Spring Edition transaction,” said Dr. Cline. “We want to give our patients an experience of quality care with sensitivity and confidentiality. We are the only independent, physician- owned healthcare facility in Center with direct physician oversight and collaborative care including our association with Nacogdoches Medical Center.” He stressed the goal of providing quality care adding, “We are here for the long- haul commitment. We already offer a long list of services not available anywhere else in Center, and we have plans to add physicians to our staff over the next year or two.” “Just in the five years I’ve been here,” added Laura Briggs, ACNP-BC, “I’ve seen an expansion of services. Things like bio- identical hormone replacement and our aesthetics business known as Body Lab. Plus, we now have a cardiologist who sees patients at our Center office on certain Mondays each month: Dr. Richard Lowry with Cardiovascular Associates of East Texas in Tyler.” That is in addition to a list of services that includes pediatric and adolescent health, adult medicine, preventive health screening, full lab with in-house phlebotomist, sports medicine, in- house x-ray, in-house allergy lab and immunotherapy, and a designated procedure room for minor in-office surgery. “We are here to take care of you,” Dr. Cline emphasized. “And, this is our home. Our dedication to the community includes not only the multi-million-dollar commitment to the community through the building of our Center facility but beyond health care, we are active in the chamber