Gary W. Dorshimer, MD, FACP

By David Woods, PhD, FCPP

After some 28 years as a primary care physician in Center City Philadelphia, Dr. Gary Dorshimer, 59, decided that he’d had enough of ever more form filling and documentation and leaving less time for actual contact with patients. In fact, a survey conducted by Health Affairs showed that physicians spend roughly $80,000 a year processing insurance claims and their staff devote some 20 hours a week interacting with health plans.

So he started looking into concierge practice, sometimes known as retainer-based medicine, and, with his wife Deborah, attended a seminar by MDVIP, a leading company in the field. However, he decided to become part of a Penn initiative, Penn Personalized care, to be able to deliver a high level of care to patients.

His patient care coordinator, Cynthia Cross, and his medical assistant Charlene Griffin worked with Gary Dorshimer for 20 years or more in his former practice and have now joined the new one. Both say there’s more attention to individual patients’ needs, and more time spent with them. Along with a third staff member, Samantha Jacobs, the operation is much leaner, Cynthia says – and less pressured. There’s always a person answering the phone to talk with patients – not a voice mail system.

The whole idea of concierge medicine is said to have stemmed from a Dr. Howard Maron, a specialist in sports medicine and physician to the Seattle Supersonics pro basketball team. Gary Dorshimer, as head team physician for the Philadelphia Flyers and team internist for the Philadelphia Eagles may have spotted a kindred spirit in Dr. Maron.and Penn Medicine moved his practice to the 17th floor of an elegant building just a few blocks from his original base.

He got involved in sports medicine after finishing  his Chief Resident year at Pennsylvania Hospital. In July 1984 he joined Viner/Daniels Internal Medicine Associates, where Dr. Ed Viner was head team physician for the Phila Flyers and the Phila Orchestra.  He started to work with the Flyers.  Up until 1999, he says, you could become Board Certified in Sports Medicine  without having done a sports medicine fellowship but by showing on-going work in sports medicine, attending sports medicine courses, etc., and passing the Board exam. 

Gary has been a team physician with many other teams, including the Phila Phantoms, the AHL affiliate of the Flyers, before they moved to Glens Falls, NY when the Spectrum closed.  They are now moving to Allentown, PA. He has hoisted the Calder Cup twice when they won the AHL Championships.He has  cared for such teams as men’s indoor soccer (the Kixx), women’s soccer (Charge), and women’s basketball (Rage). Moreover, he has served as the NHL Internal Medicine consultant to the Olympics in 1998 (Nagano), 2002 (Salt Lake City), 2010 (Vancouver) and 2014 (Sochi). 

So as team physician at the professional levels, he practices general internal medicine for the players and their families, as there are orthopedic specialists taking care of musculo-skeletal injuries.  A major injury he cares for is concussion. “ Our knowledge of the physiology of concussion, the evaluation and treatment and return to play criteria has improved over his 30 years in sports medicine,” he says. 

In his concierge practice he has much less pressure; sees only a fraction of his former daily caseload, and can spend more time with patients, especially on preventive medicine. ‘At the end of the working day,’ he says, ‘rather than continuing into the night with a mountain of documentation to get through, I can walk away from my daily routine.’ Time and breathing space are the great benefits of his new professional life, says Dorshimer. ‘I don't mind working hard; but I found the hectic pace of my former practice to be very wearing.’

Not only that, but it means being  ‘captain of the ship,’ in other words, a general internist fills a leading role for patients, taking information and advice from other consultants and applying them to the patient’s specific needs.

For patients, it means no lengthy wait for an appointment, quality time spent with the doctor, and very personal attention. No wonder that the number of concierge practices in the United States is now more than 5000, and growing. The only downside appears to be, in the minds of some critics, that it caters to the wealthy and then creates two levels of care. In fact, Gary Dorshimer takes care of retired teachers, truck drivers, postal workers … a broad spectrum of patients across all income groups.

In 2011, he was voted one of the top US internists by US News and World Report. He is a fellow of the American College of Medicine, as well as the College of Physicians of Philadelphia.

In his spare time––which he now has more of––he likes to travel (most recently to Scotland between the two sessions of our interview) enjoys teaching (he's a clinical associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania) and is proud of the sports medicine fellowship he started in 1998 with Dr Arthur Bartolozzi. He is a frequent lecturer and serves on the editorial board of The Physician and Sports Medicine.

He and his wife Deborah and 30-year-old son Geoff live in Drexel Hill.