Issue link: https://fredparent.uberflip.com/i/1526469
24 Fredericksburg Parent and Family • September 2024 Dr. Margaret Patterson went into pediatrics to help children. Over the years, this mother of four boys found that the demands of insurance-based healthcare were taking too much time away from her true love—listening to her patients and finding ways to help them. She founded Magnolia Pediatrics under the direct primary care (DPC) model, which allows patients to pay a flat monthly fee that covers all office visits, in-office tests and more. A growing number of families are finding DPC medicine to be both economically beneficial and personally satisfying. Here, Dr. Patterson explains her journey to DPC medicine and how this model benefits both providers and patients. Q: When did you first get interested in medicine? My oldest sister (the oldest of five children) was born with a chromosomal abnormality that causes a condition called Cri du Chat. She is nonverbal and is intellectually about on par with a 1-year-old. My parents were so young, and medicine in the 1970s did not offer much guidance about the condition. I remember driving from New Orleans to Shreveport to visit my sister in a residential school that was run very lovingly by Catholic nuns. This experience absolutely influenced me to go into medicine. My sister is now 47, and throughout our lives we have been able to communicate despite the fact that she is nonverbal. This has normalized for me the fact that we as humans can communicate in so many different ways. It is an understanding I bring to my practice treating babies and young children who cannot verbally communicate. My great-grandfather also had a developmentally disabled son, and he built a school for handicapped adults called the Magnolia School. (www.mcs-nola.org). My sister lives there now. I named my practice Magnolia Pediatrics in honor of this organization. Takes All the Obstacles Out of the Doctor-Patient Relationship WRITTEN BY LEIGH ANNE VAN DOREN Dr. Margaret Patterson of Magnolia Pediatrics Q: What was your path to pediatrics and the Fredericksburg region? I went to medical school at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans, which is where I met my husband. We both went to Penn State for our residencies—he is a derma- tologist in town. We prac- ticed in Baton Rouge, La., for eight years before we moved to Fredericksburg. We have four sons, ages 7 through 14. All are very energetic.