Meet Tara Cavazos of Lakewood Family Health

Today we’d like to introduce you to Tara Cavazos.

Tara, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My interest in medicine began as a child, where I would spend many weekends and summers going to work with my father, a physician in Oklahoma. When I was young, I spent most of my time waiting in his office, and as I got older, he put me to work filing charts and prepping surgical towels for extra income. Here, I had the opportunity to watch my dad, a man from humble beginnings, use his profession to care and serve others in a way I admired. This introduction into healthcare ignited the fire within me to grow my knowledge in the social science fields.

After graduating from Baylor University, I entered the medical profession as a pediatric intensive care nurse, working with critically ill children at a large pediatric hospital in Dallas. After completing my graduate degree as a Nurse Practitioner, the majority of my career involved serving in a medically underserved clinic, enhancing access to care for low-income patients from culturally diverse backgrounds. I, later, transitioned into a leadership role with a national preventive healthcare practice here in Dallas where I came to better understand the business of medicine. Patient care was at the center, but importance was also placed on customer service, professionalism and finding efficiencies while delivering excellent care. Although I loved managing a team of healthcare providers, I found myself missing the day-to-day interactions with patients.

We kept hearing patients were tired of “big box” medicine and missed the personal relationships they used to have with their providers. Primary care has turned into to a numbers game. With skyrocketing healthcare costs and dwindling reimbursement rates, healthcare providers have fallen victim to overbooked schedules, leaving minimal time for patient consults. It seems many providers succumb to this model, close their doors, or sell their independent practices. All three are happening at alarming rates in the Dallas metroplex. We started Lakewood Family Health with the idea that we could deliver excellent healthcare that is accessible at affordable rates.

We understand the importance of spending time and listening to patients. Utilizing smart scheduling tools, patients have the ability to make online appointments 24 hours a day. We offer same day appointments, as well as, walk-in appointments for many of our services. We get that when you are ill, you need to be seen quickly!

As mentioned above, affordable payment options were high on our priority list. Nurse practitioner contracts are paid at lower rates than physicians. This cost directly impacts patients because their out-of-pocket payments decrease. For example, when a patient with Medicare sees a nurse practitioner, only 85 percent of the physician fee is charged meaning insurers and individuals pay less. For our self-pay patients, we negotiated prices with local labs at a fraction of the cost of most offices. Lakewood Family Health offers comprehensive labs, including genetic testing starting at $20, that help identify risks before sickness occurs. Because we treat across the lifespan, the whole family is treated in one location. Easy access to healthcare at affordable rates….done!

Additionally, we offer skincare consulting, laser treatments, cosmetic injections like Botox and dermal fillers. It’s not uncommon that we treat both a medical need and perform a skin care treatment in the same office visit.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As with any new business, we have experienced growing pains. The owners are, in fact, human. 🙂 We come to the table with different skill sets. I am driven by numbers and seeking out efficiencies. My business partner, Kendra, is all about relationships. There are times when we don’t see eye-to-eye, but, thankfully, we were friends before we were business partners. There is a mutual trust between us so when we have differing opinions, we seek to understand first and recognize the differences we bring are complementary to one another.

Our first week of business, we had a pipe burst and flood part of the clinic. Thankfully, we were able to act on it quickly, but we had to shut our doors for a few days to get the mess cleaned up. Nothing like paying for painters to come back two weeks after they completed the job to repaint the same walls! Ha! Since we were a new business, we didn’t have many patients scheduled and could direct them to urgent care for immediate needs.

From a practical standpoint, we have learned the more we communicate, the better our business runs. We choose to spend the majority of lunches together talking business. It’s not uncommon to see us walking to lunch around Lakewood or running on the treadmills at the White Rock YMCA constantly in conversation with one another.

Lakewood Family Health – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
Lakewood Family Health is a nurse practitioner (NP) owned family practice clinic. We have a team of five, highly-skilled clinicians ready to address your healthcare concerns. The majority of our patient visits are for annual exams, vaccines, or sick visits including infections, skin rashes, mental health concerns, and chronic disease management.

NPs perform comprehensive physical exams; diagnose and treat common acute illnesses and injuries; manage high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and other chronic health illnesses; order and interpret diagnostic tests such as X-rays, EKGs, and laboratory tests; perform minor procedures, and prescribe medications. Our clinicians work closely with highly-trained specialists when a health condition warrants.

Our passion is educating patients and their families regarding healthy lifestyles and health care options. We believe disease prevention is much better than treating illness.

The majority of our patient visits are 30 minutes. That means your face-to-face time with a healthcare provider is long enough for you to fully understand your disease process and have questions answered. We do not hurry you out the door. We know that the more time we spend with you, the better we can understand the impact illness has on your daily life.

I am most proud of the team we have built. Our staff is trained on excellent patient customer service. We understand our patients’ time is important. We strive to keep the patient at the heart of everything we do.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
While my career has allowed me to work with medical directors from a Big Four tech company, answer questions about mental health with a national newspaper publisher, attend the top doctoral nursing program in the U.S. (Go Blue Devils), and publish a study done at Lakewood Family Health, none of this compares with the privilege of having individuals and families in the Dallas community walk through the doors of our clinic and trust us with their care and well-being.

As Nelson Mandela says, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”. Our office actively mentors and trains graduate nursing students to better understand their role as primary care providers. It is not uncommon for me to have a student most days of the week. Precepting students is a way for me to pay forward my gratitude for all whom invested in my career. Many of my NP students get an opportunity to follow me at an underserved urgent care in which I’m involved through my church, Watermark. Here, we both get the opportunity to provide healthcare for those who otherwise could not afford it.

Pricing:

• Accept Most Commercial Insurance Plans including Medicare
• Self-Pay New Office Visit $90
• Self-Pay Established Office Visit $75

Contact Info:

• Address: 6331 Prospect Ave
  Dallas, Texas 75214
• Website: www.lakewoodfamilyhealth.com
• Phone: 214-821-6331
• Email: info@lakewoodfamilyhealth.com
• Instagram: @taracavazosnp @lakewoodfamilyhealth
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Lakewoodfamilyhealth

Image Credit:
Mel Conner Photography

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