“Yeah, well honestly my first thought is that I’m really proud of the fact that we have been able to bring rheumatologists into Northeastern Wisconsin, into the communities of Northeastern Wisconsin. The fact that we have now brought in 10 rheumatologists, people who are here to stay, is a proud moment not only because we were able to do it, but it also means that we have a very healthy work environment, a very healthy practice environment, and it means that there are going to have rheumatologists in our communities not just today, but tomorrow. We’re building for the future, but we’re also building for the present moment.

What does it mean to patients? The biggest difficulty that any of us have medically, or as patients, is getting access. It’s getting in to see someone when we need them, in a timely fashion. It doesn’t matter what your definition of timely is. We’ve all been in situations where the wait just wasn’t reasonable, didn’t seem reasonable. The bigger we become the bigger numbers we bring in; the better access we have to serve the people that we’re here to take care of. Cause that’s really what it’s all about.”

“Yes, so in a nutshell infusions are medications. It’s just a different way to deliver a medication. So, traditionally we think about medications as being pill that you take. But over time – and really beginning about 25 years ago – our ability to treat people became much better because we were able to target specific types of medical conditions in a very specific way, as opposed to a very general way. It’s given us new tools in our toolbox. But infusions, again, they’re medicines. Why are they different? They’re different because these medications that we use to target autoimmune disease are trying to enhance parts of the immune system that are now dysfunctional, not working right.”

“In almost every case, the conditions we’re treating have to do with a dysfunctional immune system. So, the general term we use is autoimmune disease. These are conditions including, but not limited to rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, lupus, gout, scleroderma, muscle conditions, autoimmune muscle disease. So, it’s pretty much a broad array of things that we target in terms of the diseases that we treat.”

“I think first and foremost, is convenience. People who work in our building are friendly faces; they’re familiar faces that people become accustomed to over time. And those are important relationships. Secondly, is the fact there’s always a physician on site. Most facilities that are hospital based, use facility fees as a cover charge to come in the door. You see this when you’re in emergency rooms, you see this when you’re in infusion centers. That’s something that we have elected to forego because ultimately at the end of the day it lessens the cost of doing business here.”