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Clinic to increase M.D. quotient in central Pasco
By JAMES THORNER © St. Petersburg Times, published October 3, 2000 WESLEY CHAPEL -- Central Pasco County, where medical care lags dismally behind housing growth, has landed what promises to be a 40-physician clinic on State Road 54 in Wesley Chapel. Dr. Hasan Hashmi, a Pakistani-born surgeon who founded Point of Care Clinic in Zephyrhills, is bringing what he calls his patient-centered philosophy to central Pasco. In July, Hashmi and his partners installed themselves in an temporary office at Quail Hollow Plaza, behind Peacock's Smokehouse & Grill. Mext year, the partners will relocate to 8.6 acres they bought on either side of Gateway Boulevard, the entrance to Saddlebrook Corporate Center. Hashmi said his clinic will include general practitioners and at least one rheumatologist, gastrointestinal specialist, cardiologist and colon-rectal surgeon. The new clinic fills a yawning gap in medical care between east Pasco and central Pasco. Despite roughly equal-size populations, Dade City and Zephyrhills offer a combined 150 physicians, compared to about 10 in Wesley Chapel and Land O'Lakes. Most physicians have opted for the fiscal security of Zephyrhills, where tens of thousands of seniors with government-funded Medicare assure a steady stream of income, Hashmi said. But research of housing growth in central Pasco confirms that the community needs medical care closer to home than Tampa and Zephyrhills, he said. He expects his clinic will inspire more doctors to take the plunge into central Pasco, where younger families with HMOs predominate. "I would not be surprised that all of a sudden you'll find too many physicians rather than too few," Hashmi said. "It just takes a spark. I think Point of Care Clinic is that spark." To introduce themselves to the community, Hashmi and his colleagues plan to sponsor a health fair when their new office opens next year on Gateway Boulevard. The partners will start with an office, to be open 16 hours a day, on the east side of the boulevard and expand into a larger, full-scale clinic on the west side of the road. Hashmi promises to make patient-friendly care his trademark. Enlisting the Internet revolution, Hashmi wants patients to make appointments and evaluate their doctors online. He plans to install a system of visiting specialists from such prestigious universities as Yale and Harvard. High blood pressure and diabetes screenings will be gratis. Some poor patients would pay reduced fees. "We don't want to refuse anybody because of their payment capability," he said. "But we don't want people to abuse the system either." Hashmi's next order of business: Joining the networks of several managed-care insurance plans and expanding his current base of doctors from the current 11. But he wants only a special sort of doctor to climb aboard his practice. "If you're a physician and your purpose in joining is only billing and collecting, this isn't the place for you," he said.
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