Hoskinson Health and Wellness Clinic is a medical facility that’s set to partially open in Gillette next week. But it doesn’t necessarily follow a traditional model of patient care, the kind of services it provides, or the kind of care it seeks to offer patients.
“We're going to be taking care of the whole patient, not just I got a bum elbow, we're going to find out why you had a bum elbow--did you fall because your blood pressure has not been taken care of [due to] blood sugar issues, we're going to do a whole body review, systems review, I guess is the right word for it,” said Dennis Jack, Director of Operations for Hoskinson Health and Wellness. “We're going to really focus on how we can help you expand what we call your health span, and that's the period of time where you can be in control of what's happening with you, your lifespan. We're trying to expand the abilities that you have as you get older.”
There will be a research component associated with the clinic as well as helping patients with the different aspects of their health and lifestyle choices. It will also focus on anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Jack said that this is the only facility of its kind in Wyoming to his knowledge.
“The research that goes along with that really ties into the expanding your health span,” Jack added. “So, is that nutrition, is it exercise physiology? We’re going to have both of those things involved, but it means that we're going to find new innovative combinations of medication, supplements, diet, exercise--all of those things to help a patient expand their health span. If that works, then we'd like to be able to take that and replicate our concept in other locations.”
Jack said doctors and other healthcare staff at the clinic will spend time getting to know the patient and their needs. This includes offering mental health services and even DNA sequencing to find out what, if any, medication may be effective for patients.
“If you go to a regular doctor's office, it's part of a system, [and] they're expecting those doctors to see a patient every 15 minutes, so if you don't see 25 patients in a day, you're going to be called on the carpet because your productivity [is low],” he explained. “We're giving our providers the time they need to do the in-depth analysis of a patient, so a busy day for one of our doctors is going to be 16 patients--it's a huge improvement. [For] a new patient, it'll be an hour. A follow up patient could be 30 minutes, 45 minutes, whatever the patient needs.”
The clinic will also accept Medicare and Medicaid patients as part of their inclusive approach. Cryptocurrency may be accepted at some point in the future. The goal is to provide these services in parts of the country that have traditionally been underserved. The total costs associated with the clinic, which include infrastructure improvements to acquired land next to the a former restaurant they've renovated, could be approximately $18 million, Jack said.
Dr. Mark Hoskinson and his two sons, Dr. William Hoskinson, both of whom are former physicians with Campbell County Health, and Charles Hoskinson, the co-founder of Ethereum and creator of the cryptocurrency Cardano, are driving forces behind the clinic.
The clinic will open with about 30 staff next week, which is scheduled to grow to around 80 to 100 once it opens fully in December. Jack indicated that some of their staffing needs can be acquired locally while others will have to be hired on from outside of the area.
Allowing access to their facilities and working with existing healthcare facilities in Gillette, including cooperating with Campbell County Health, are also part of their efforts.
Jack and Dr. Mark Hoskinson are also running for board positions on Campbell County Health’s Board of Trustees in the November general election.
