Very often, a point of stress and financial strain comes from medical expenses. Beyond that, comprehending insurance is nearly always an opaque and frustrating process. These issues can discourage medical students from pursuing their calling and prevent families from easily accessing the care they need. Christendom alum Dr. John-Paul Jansen ’00 is combating the area of medical uncertainty through his direct primary care facility, Fiat Medical.
Fiat Medical was born out of a desire to better serve both patients and doctors. Typical clinics are often constrained by complications arising from insurance, causing delays, endless paperwork, and unanswered questions. Frequently, insurance dictates what kind of treatment a patient can have and the types of care that are covered, not covered, partially covered, or considered “optional.”
Another pitfall of these kinds of care facilities is the limited time a doctor has for each patient. A patient may wait several weeks for an appointment, only to be seen by a doctor for only 15 minutes, be ordered to take a litany of tests, and come back in a month. Unfortunately, insurance can all too easily complicate and even limit care, leaving both patient and doctor frustrated while the bills rack up.
This story comes from the latest issue of Instaurare Magazine, the official magazine of Christendom College. Read more from Instaurare here!
Witnessing the world’s response to COVID-19, Jansen increasingly felt the desire for change. He recognized problems with physicians burning out from these types of workdays and patients being unable to get comprehensive care from these short, stressful visits. He wanted a better way. With his father, Dr. Donald Jansen, he started Fiat Medical as an answer to this healthcare problem, opening a direct primary care practice in Front Royal, Virginia, with a sister branch in Manassas headed up by Patrick Vander Woude ’05.
Christendom alum Dr. John-Paul Jansen ’00.
This model of practice is subscription-based, removing the need for insurance to complicate and potentially compromise care. It also allows for more personal and intentional care for patients.
“By doing this,” Jansen says, “we’re much more independent. We are able to do things more freely and address the needs the community wants.”
As Vander Woude says, “Fiat Medical is seeking to reinvigorate the old country doctor mentality, which is about having relationships with people and not treating them like numbers in a factory.”
Jansen graduated from Christendom in 2000 with a degree in history and then pursued a medical career. He says his liberal arts education has been crucial to his career as a physician. He recognizes the value in having gotten his degree in history prior to medical school, saying:
“You need both is what I would say. Because if you’re not able to think on your own, you’re going to be following the masses, right? Who’s able to think on their own versus not? And I think that’s where the liberal arts education makes a difference.”
“Christendom is able to give you a bit more of an advantage than anybody else,” Jansen says, “because to think critically, to be able to write, to read, and to kind of criticize ideas is so important, and they don’t teach that in medical school or nursing school. There’s not a specific class or a specific way to say, ‘hey, hey, think outside of the box, see what you can do.’ I can take a look at the whole person, not just the patient’s physical health.”
Jansen credits his education with guiding his career to this day, saying, “Christendom really helped me, not only in medical school, but as a physician, to see the person as a whole—mind, body, and soul—not just the body, which medicine has a strong tendency to do.”
Vander Woude agrees.
“Studying real, Christ-centered history at Christendom has been one of the best foundations for practicing medicine. It taught me to ask questions and not to rely on algorithms or the ‘expertise’ of others,” he says, “It also taught me that in order to truly ‘restore all things in Christ’ we need to live our Catholic faith in public, whether it is popular or not.”
Having that foundation in the Catholic liberal arts has given a focus to Jansen and Vander Woude’s medical work. It’s out of that desire to “restore all things in Christ” that Fiat was born. Its subscription-based practice has reaped many positive results, both for their own staff and the people they serve. Building more personal, dedicated relationships with their patients has allowed Fiat Medical to give patients far more time and personalized attention.
“The most meaningful aspect of working in healthcare thus far has been helping people advocate for themselves and understand that they have the ability to get healthy,” Vander Woude says.
As the healthcare field becomes increasingly complex and impersonal, Jansen and Vander Woude pursue this path out of a desire to find a better way forward with their practice. Through Fiat Medical, they are not only providing high-quality care but also restoring the dignity of both patient and physician. They are far from alone, as many direct care practices are starting up all around the country, and of those, many have been started by Catholics. The movement has been growing, aiming to improve the world of healthcare and provide health and fulfillment to patients and providers alike. And in doing so, they are helping to build a better future for medicine—one patient at a time.
Written by Lianna Youngman.
Read more from Instaurare Magazine here.