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Fill To Capacity (Where Heart, Grit and Irreverent Humor Collide)
Podcast for people too stubborn to quit and too creative not to make a difference!Join visual artist Pat Benincasa in conversation with a riveting roster of guests to uncover extraordinary stories of everyday people. Listen as they share their quirky wisdom, unlikely adventures, and poignant life lessons! Fasten your emotional seatbelt for this journey of heart, humor and grit!
Fill To Capacity (Where Heart, Grit and Irreverent Humor Collide)
Trailblazing Triumph: Rewriting Healthcare for Women 65+
Reimagine women’s healthcare! This episode explores the groundbreaking work of Herself Health, redefining care for women 65+ with a bold, whole-person approach.
Join Becca Kummer, Clinic Manager, and Morgan Lange, Physician Assistant, as they share how they’re charting new paths with empathy, connection, and innovative value-based care—giving women the respect, attention, and healthcare they deserve. Packed with insights and powerful stories of transformation and resilience, this is not just medicine—it’s a movement!
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Please Note: The views expressed by our guests do not necessarily reflect the views of the podcaster.
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Fill to Capacity, where heart, grit and irreverent humor collide. A podcast for people too stubborn to quit and too creative not to make a difference. Creative not to make a difference. Hi, I'm Pat Benincasa and welcome to Fill to Capacity Today, episode number 94, trailblazing Triumph Rewriting Healthcare for Women 65 Plus. Rewriting Healthcare for Women 65+. Now, today, we're spotlighting a healthcare model that is transforming lives. It's called Herself Health. It was founded in 2022 by Kristen Helton in collaboration with the Venture Studio Juxtaposition.
Speaker 2:Okay, I know you guys, listeners, are saying Venture Studio. Now what is this? Okay, a Venture Studio is a company that builds and launches new businesses by providing the ideas, the funding and hands-on support needed to make them successful. Unlike venture capital firms that only invest in startups, venture studios actively create and develop companies from the ground up. Wow, I just feel like I just stepped off the pages of the Wall Street Journal. Okay, definitely sounded like it.
Speaker 2:Okay, moving on, her self-health provides personalized care tailored to women 65 and older, focusing on the unique challenges this often overlooked group faces, from value-based care to fostering community. Their approach is revolutionary. Okay, listeners, imagine a healthcare system where your well-being, not the number of appointments or procedures, is the top priority. Welcome to the world of value-based care, a model that shifts the focus from quantity to quality, ensuring that doctors and hospitals are rewarded for how well they help you heal and thrive. It's not about how much care you receive, but how effective and impactful that care is. So today we're diving into this game-changing approach that's reshaping healthcare as we know it, and my two very busy guests have taken time off this morning to join us, and they're going to take us inside a transformative approach to healthcare. Becca Coomer, clinic Manager at Herself Health, and Morgan Lange, physician Assistant, are here to discuss how their groundbreaking work is reshaping care for women 65 and older. Together, they'll explore the vision, challenges and successes driving Her Self Health's innovative mission. So welcome you guys. I'm so happy to have you here.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for asking us to join. It's an honor and we're so excited to share exactly what you just said Really revolutionary. Frankly, healthcare is something I really believe in and feel firmly that this is the future. This is how to solve a potentially a broken system.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I'm glad to have you here Now, Becca. I'll start with you. What inspired you to join Herself Health and champion its mission of addressing the unique healthcare needs of women, 65 and older?
Speaker 1:Yeah, great question, pat. I was reading a job description actually I was in a big healthcare company doing just fine, you know, making a difference in some ways and read this job description and I truly felt like it was made for Becca Coomer. I was like holy smokes, I reached out. The rest is kind of history. It's been an incredible journey. I've never worked in a startup, I've never worked in a small company, I've not worked in a company that rewards creativity openly and where I leave every single day knowing I've made a difference. It's truly a remarkable position and I'm very lucky to be here.
Speaker 1:When I think of my operations and my goals in the clinic, I think of my mom, right, and I think of my grandma and I think of my aunt, who I'm really close with, and all the other wonderful females that are 65 plus in my life who have shaped me in many different ways and taught me so many things. And I think you know, does this make sense for them? And that drives pretty much every operational decision I make, of course, aligning with herself's health. Values of mission, too, and I'm a mission driven person. It's really easy to get behind this. It's really values of mission, too, and I'm a mission-driven person. It's really easy to get behind this. It's really easy whenever day I know I'm making a difference for these women, so it's incredible.
Speaker 3:Yeah, how am I supposed to follow up?
Speaker 2:Okay, Morgan, I'm going to go back now to you. What drew you to herselfhealth and how does it align with your personal and professional values?
Speaker 3:So I started off working in rural health care and I appreciated the community that was there, the trust that was there between patient provider and it actually became value-based care towards the end of while I was there and I remember just loving this idea, appreciating that it's trying to change healthcare for good and really focused on the patient rather than checking boxes and checking numbers. Then I've been doing urgent care the past few years, so definitely a step back to that classic traditional fee-for-service model and I really miss that patient camaraderie and getting to have these strong relationships and getting to really care about these people and care for people. So learned about her self-health and loved the value-based care model because again I just appreciate it how it looks at whole care of the person. It's not strictly like I'm coming in for X, I need treatment with Y to get us to Bill Z, it's more okay. I'm meeting Pat. Pat has a podcast that is important to her so we need to make sure she's feeling well. We want to make sure she has community here. We want to make sure that when we see her she's meeting her goals and expectations and we're helping fostering a strong medical community and autonomy for her and, in addition to that.
Speaker 3:My mom's one of five women and I grew up they're all Irish, philadelphia Irish so we're all very outspoken and we all really create these strong environments of discussion and I get to now come to work where it feels like I'm hanging out with my family every day. So it's just been really wonderful to get to do that and get to meet all these really strong, great women. And we actually do have we're focused on 65 plus but we do see a few people outside of that primary 65 plus women and I just really appreciate, as far as my values go, that it meets, that I get to meet somebody and be a part of their care, not be the one telling them exactly what to do, but instead getting to work with them and build this trust and build their autonomy in their own health.
Speaker 2:I have to tell you I have been amazed by the care. I switched over to herself health about two years ago and I could honestly say wow, what a difference. So and by the way, listeners, I'm not being paid to do this. I don't even earn money on my podcast. Please don't think that this is something that I am being paid to do. I am not, so thank you. Now, women over 65 are often overlooked in healthcare. How is Her Self Health creating a care model that truly serves their unique needs and challenges? What is it you guys do specifically?
Speaker 1:and challenges. What is it you guys do specifically? I think what we do is different, right? I think we're trying to take what we know and what women 65 plus know to be healthcare for 65 plus years and change it. You know, as we kind of touched on already, we want to know the whole being. Our biggest value is her first, and so truly like understanding and meeting that patient where they're at. This isn't quick in and out, this is get to know, you Like truly spend an hour initially with the patient to understand who they are, where they come from, what their values are and how us as healthcare team can fit into that and kind of mesh with their own personal goals. So it's everything from keeping you kind of what the tag team I tell my team often is we see you more often to keep you well.
Speaker 1:The value-based care approach is about quality and about preventative care. So often we've gone to the doctor when we're ill in the past. Right, we only see them when we're ill. This approach is we see you more often to keep you well so we can prevent exacerbations or ED admissions or all of those things. And so we just look at things very differently Like how is that asthma? Is that COPD in check? How is your A1C? Can we keep that diabetes under control right To prevent bigger issues down the line? Essentially, we want you doing what you love and we want to keep you well to do that.
Speaker 1:So the other piece to this whole puzzle that Morgan started talking about is community. Like this population, and frankly, all of our demographic in the world is looking for connection right. So we bring this community approach to healthcare that you don't typically see. We have community rooms at each of our locations. We spend a lot of time and resources on an outreach team to make sure that we're bringing in speakers that meet our patients' needs, whether that's about grief or whether that's a sound bath or acupuncture or help with billing or insurance pieces or scams that target this population all those things and we bring that right to the clinic. So it's very community-based.
Speaker 1:I was just hearing a story Two patients didn't know each other and I guess this happens often after I kind of pushed further, met after their appointment in the lobby right here and had a coffee together and ended up hugging and leaving saying you know, like this place just changed my day, maybe my life Again. When you hear things like that. It pushes our employees to be their best. I think that's the other piece of this. As a clinic manager, operationally, I'm working really hard to have this really cool culture where folks can show up and be themselves authentically and that this is a safe space for them as employees, and what that does is trickles down to our patient experience and makes this whole thing work. We're smaller. We can do these things. There's less red tape. I have creativity to roll all pilots and make operational decisions that make sense for my site and because of all that, I guess the word is revolutionary.
Speaker 2:Yeah, morgan, what's?
Speaker 3:your take. I agree with what Becca's saying and I do. I like that we look at the entire individual. So something that I really enjoy is that we have an events calendar and that can range from things more educational, so we'll have different topics, like Becca said, every month to cover things Like this month we might focus on osteoporosis, and we'll even have meetings with providers to get them up to speed on the most recent recommendations for that. And then, in addition to that, this population as a whole, I feel like, are very used to caring for everyone else, putting other people, pets, work, things ahead of themselves, and it's really exciting to get to take it back to them and get them to focus.
Speaker 3:What are your goals? We don't have to worry about all these other things outside the room when you're here. What are your goals? What would make you happy, healthy? And we have things in that event calendar, including community, like we have book club, there's been cooking classes, we have yoga classes offered online and just really trying to make sure it's not just oh, you have high blood pressure, get on this medication. Good luck. Well, you have high blood pressure, let's talk about it. Have you had a salty week? Because Thanksgiving, christmas holidays happen, so let's figure out some good alternatives. Are you open to medication? Do you prefer supplements? Like Becca said, we want to meet you where you're at because you are welcome here. Yeah, I love that.
Speaker 2:It's just so opposite of the assembly line approach to medicine that so many of us find very frustrating. So what you're talking about is really reinventing community and using medical care as the nucleus for this community.
Speaker 1:I love how you said that. Yeah, agreed, it's really quite remarkable how this demographic has reacted to that too, after the culture shock because truly I think there is an element of culture shock. It's a whole new thing. Wait, you see me when I'm well. Wait, I can go to my doctor's office and sit in a lounge chair and read a book. It's just, it's new, it's different, and it takes a while to grasp onto that. And when they see the results of their work, meaning the patient and that provider helping them along or that care team helping them along, it's really exciting and we're seeing great quality care, which is the bottom line. We're taking care of our patients, we're making them better.
Speaker 2:Now I'm going to go in a different direction. So, listeners, buckle up, we're going to go there. This brings me to my next question In Grey's Anatomy, season 14, episode 11, don't Fear the Reaper. Dr Miranda Bailey, I love Bailey. I love Bailey. Okay, dr Miranda Bailey, I love Bailey, okay. Dr Miranda Bailey, respected chief of surgery, experiences a heart attack and goes to another hospital instead of her own. The treating doctor knows her professionally, dismisses her concerns because they don't fit the typical male-centered profile of a heart attack, despite him knowing that she is the chief of surgery at Grace Sloan Memorial Hospital. Her expertise and self-advocacy are dismissed. To make matters worse, when she asks for a second opinion, she is given a psychiatrist. Now, this episode explores themes of implicit bias in medicine. Implicit bias in medicine, particularly for women and women of color. Ultimately, her condition is confirmed as a heart attack and she undergoes successful treatment. Now, for both of you. How does her self-health address these deeply ingrained biases in the healthcare system?
Speaker 3:I think one of the major things is that a lot of medical studies that we heavily rely on were done on these sample sizes that tended to be Caucasian males of a certain age. There's studies that also show that women of color, specifically, are the most undertreated, underdiagnosed individuals, have some higher risk factors for different things, and Her Self-Health tries to be very aware of that and trying to keep as updated on studies, studies that are now all encompassing of populations, because it's about time and we try to make sure everything you're saying is heard. For example, if a patient comes to me, then they just feel off. They can't explain why Something feels off. They know something's wrong with them. Who am I to tell them? No, you're fine, because I don't live every day how you live, you know you're normal, you know when something's off. So let's investigate, let's see what we can do. What are your thoughts? Oh, it turns out there's a significant family history and that's why you feel this way.
Speaker 3:Yes, different things, like a heart attack can mimic acid reflux, it can mimic anxiety, it can mimic all these different things. But let's figure that out together, because what is doing an EKG and running a lab test to make sure it's not a heart attack. Let's make sure you're doing okay. And that episode grinds my gears watching it Because, as you said, chief of surgery like she knows these symptoms, she knows what's going on with her body and, yes, she has a stressful job. There might be components of anxiety, but anxiety can also be tied to heart attack risk. And again, you have to look at Miranda as a whole person. She's working crazy hours. What's her diet like Because she's working these crazy hours? What's her stress like Because she's working these crazy hours? What's her stress level? Probably pretty high, I'd imagine.
Speaker 3:So if someone comes and they're like, listen, something's off, we try to take that as seriously as possible and also talk you through. Let's take this stepwise. If we do an EKG and it's totally normal, let's get some labs. Do you feel comfortable with that? Is that one of those big boxes we need to check for you to make sure you're okay? So including you in that decision process as well, trying to fight the bias by being as up to date as possible, including we do have up to date, which is a subscription service where we get it's a conglomeration of all the most recent medical data into this readable format that we can apply to our patients. So it tells us, like diverticulitis in Asian population, they actually can present with right-sided abdominal pain instead of traditional left-sided abdominal pain. So being aware of those things, I think, is a huge thing, and those little differences that make a person an individual, and listening to their specific concerns. I think that's, across the board, what we try to do.
Speaker 2:Now, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges, in the 2024-25 academic year, women made up 54.9% of medical school enrollment, marking the fifth consecutive year of a female majority, and, morgan, you alluded to this. Policies from the NIH, the National Institutes of Health, requiring medical research to now include both men and women, along with recent government actions focusing on women's health, are beginning to close that long-standing gap that overlooked women in medical studies that, morgan, you were talking about. Given what you guys are doing, how do you think these changes in the macro view are improving health care for women 65 and older and I know herself, health is leading the way, but do you think these changes in more women coming into medical school and the requirements for more research with women included, on the big picture, how do you think that's going to shake out? Are we going to see results soon? You think?
Speaker 3:I was going to say that, women, we need to advocate for ourselves, we need to be aware of the studies, we need to know hey, like this is male centered to have certain symptoms related to a certain disease.
Speaker 1:I'll jump in. I was just at a talk yesterday actually, where our CEO, kristen Helton, sat on a panel women in healthcare and the connection to AI women in healthcare and the connection to AI and Kristen the listeners may not know came from Amazon and shaped the start up of some of their healthcare spinoffs from Amazon. So she's got a lot of that technology background and, in any event, we had a discussion about a similar topic. We need to have women in the room women researchers, women in medicine because they're just different, right, like we're not the same as men and that's okay, that's how it is and that's how the world continues to spin and because of that, we need more women in the room for those things that are more characteristic of women, whether that's empathy or that connection piece. And so when we can do that I don't think it's going to come soon enough, I guess is the short answer but when we can get our kids involved in STEM?
Speaker 2:STEM. S-t-e-m is an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It's a way of learning that integrates these four areas of study. Stem education helps students develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills. It also promotes innovation and technological advancements.
Speaker 1:And medical and continue to see these numbers, there is going to be a positive shift that involves some of this connection and empathy piece and the whole being. I believe and I think the future of healthcare has to be this preventative healthcare. But it's not going to come until we're at the breaking point where we truly the infrastructure can't withstand the healthcare costs here in America, which is unfortunate. So what we're doing again is revolutionary and it's hard, it's really hard from a startup standpoint to make this work, but the truth is it's so, so needed and when we can get women at the table to be thoughtful about women, we are going to see a difference.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to touch base. You asked like how long is this going to take? These studies, if done well, are usually over a period of years. So even we're seeing, you said, over the past five years, an increase in like 54% of women taking over the graduating class, which is so exciting, and we need to continue to do that. We need to continue to advocate for ourselves and we need to know that this change is on bringing to the surface is that people 65 and older men and women often in this culture are dismissed or they feel invisible.
Speaker 2:Our culture is so youth-focused and it's really tragic how people 65 and older they have so much wisdom, so much knowledge and somehow this culture treats them like something to be put on the shelf and her self-health comes along and not only acknowledges women 65 and older, it makes them the centerpiece of their focus and I have to tell you that's really shocking when you think about it.
Speaker 1:It is yeah, we so often hear women say like I know my body well, I've been in it for 65 years. We hear you and that's why we want you to partner in your care. And so that's what makes the interaction between the provider and patient so successful. When they have that trust, they can share that dialogue, they're openly communicating, they're sane when those little things don't feel right because I know my body frankly and kind of moving forward from there and that's how we can prevent from getting to a more intense level that requires you know a different workup and such.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's really fun to see these women getting back to the things they love. These are the folks that can finally be them right they're at that retirement age, can choose, you know, how to spend their day and when. We can make sure that they're healthy enough to do those things they love, it all makes sense. And they're giving back so much to our communities. Frankly, it's a symbiotic thing. So there's a lot of life left to live. We're giving hope back to this generation, frankly.
Speaker 3:We might learn more, probably, from them than they do from us. I mean, I have so many patients that have had such interesting lives that it's so exciting to get to be someone who gets to be a part of it and get to hear from them and their experience.
Speaker 2:Yeah, as you say, there is a lot of life in that second part of your life. Now, a lot of corporations and business models. They say that from top down will set the attitude, It'll set the agenda as to how you treat people. That top down model really resonates and we've seen it when we've done business at places and the people are kind of rude and you go, whoa, that's kind of bizarre. But what you're proposing is something that is really it feels like top down, but really what this organization does is bottom up. It's so bottom up where empathy and innovation intersect. Will you speak to that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're trying really hard for that to be the case that the clinical team feels a lot of autonomy and creativity and is empowered to help problem solve as a startup and to help be the patient's voice, to meet them where they're at and so often at our clinic the team feels that safe culture and is able to speak up and say this isn't working for our patients, or you know now I've heard six times that we need to change this and that's where we can jump in. So we're really trying to give a lot of support to the clinical team, the boots on the ground team, to make sure that they have all the resources they need to meet the patient where they're at, to take care of the women who for so long been the caregiver and now need the care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what you're really talking about the components of communication and education, okay, and I think a lot of women, especially older women, don't feel comfortable advocating for themselves or they don't want to speak up. So when the expert, the doctor, comes in and says, well, I don't see anything wrong, and maybe this or that, why don't you go home? And you know blah, blah, and they don't want to say no, no, I don't feel well, they don't want to say and advocate and say I think, would you just listen to me? I think something's wrong In a way. This give and take that you're modeling is encouraging your patients to say well, let me tell you what I'm feeling. This is happening, and that alone is priceless.
Speaker 3:And that's exactly what we want. We want you to be able to come talk to us, tell us exactly what's going on, because we want to know every little detail, because every single piece of you is important to your health. Yeah, from the minute you walk in the door. Even when you're out of the door, we want to be updated. We want to make sure we're giving you that full, whole person care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the thing I noticed is that you do not separate physical care from mental well-being. I mean, you guys are the, that's the whole package as far as you're concerned, when someone comes in, it's the total person that you're dealing with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love that part of her self-help. It's not just the knee pain, it's the knee pain, but what is that causing and what caused the knee pain? It's the whole story and, frankly, when you feel like you have a trusting relationship with that provider I've always thought so highly of the relationship between the patient and the primary care provider in any situation, because if there is that foundational trust and it's a safe space to open up, the patient's going to divulge more, which leads to more accurate diagnoses, leads to more education from the provider, leads to compliance with treatment plan, which leads to better results, and so truly being that listening ear here at herself, health is the reason we can see the changes in our metrics, that our patients are getting better yeah, I was just going to touch on how mental health is so foundational for many different aspects of your health, so to push that aside is really, it feels, neglectful to not pay attention.
Speaker 3:Like becca said, knee pain. This might be someone who is a marathon runner and it's stopping them from even going for walks now and that can be detrimental and cause a slew of issues. So that high stress it can lead to even like high blood pressure and you're like, oh, why did you get high blood pressure? Let's talk about it and we find out it's this knee pain that stopped your regular walking. That's starting to lead to depression. Okay, so let's see what we can do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, nutrition in this country. What goes into food? Genetically modified foods. What we eat now is very different than what we ate 30 years ago. It's very different and we're seeing more obesity, diabetes and joint inflammation in people. So how do you fit in with this nutritional aspect? Is that part of when you talk to a patient? Do you bring that up? Is that part of what you exchange in terms of the information?
Speaker 3:I usually like to start that conversation first, though, with is this something you're comfortable talking about? Because food can be a very sensitive topic for a number of reasons. So usually I'll try to say, like, is this something you're comfortable talking about? Okay, let's go through what's your normal diet look like, and if you're not getting enough whole foods, where can we make subtle changes? Because that can, like you said, reduce inflammation and similar. Or again with, like, high blood pressure.
Speaker 3:Well, it sounds like you have a lot of processed salty foods which can directly correlate to your blood pressure, or you're really carb heavy and we just found out you have diabetes. What simple changes can we make? And also, let's do it in a way that you're able to do it lifelong and not for a week or two before you burn out and then we're just left with, like, I can't do it. I tried so, trying to see where they're at. What are they comfortable talking about? Are changes needed? If so, what are some ways we can actually do that in your daily life and then go from there, but trying to encourage as many whole foods as possible, limit processed foods. Okay, I'm Miranda Bailey. I'm working crazy hours. Well, miranda, you probably. Maybe meal prep could be a good idea for you. Or if you're going to be getting bulk items, let's try to get some bulk healthy items and go from there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, good point Now. Kristen Helton, the CEO of Herself Health, has spoken often about helping women find joy and purpose through better health. Can you share some stories or examples where you've seen this transformation in a patient? I know we don't have 10 hours, Okay, girls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so every Thursday I actually go through our patient comments Well, I go through them more often than that, but every Thursday I actually send them out to the team. We call it Thankful Thursday here and we send all those positive comments. And we've heard stories and likewise in clinic when I'm talking to patients face-to-face, heard stories of folks who it could be as simple as a change their outlook on health care, right, like they're more apt now to come in. So this wasn't like they went from you know knee pain. They couldn't run a marathon. We solved that. We solved the depression. They got back to the marathon. It could be as simple, and is as simple sometimes, as changing their outlook on healthcare and inviting them back into the field to relearn or to unlearn maybe, what they had known and instead prevent some of those things from happening in the first place. That you know, things that could have progressed, that we didn't let get too far. Maureen, do you want to talk more about specific patient examples? Right?
Speaker 3:I was going to mention how one of the biggest compliments I think we can get is that a patient comes in and says they feel heard. So I've had patients find out they've been feeling so crummy it's because they actually have had longstanding diabetes they had no idea they had. I've had a patient mention issues with like significant brain fog and it turns out it's correlated to their current medication regimen and it was a simple change that we made that made a huge difference. Or I've been on this medication my whole life and I have this weird chronic cough and no one's ever figured it out and it's actually a side effect from your medication. We changed their medication and they're like oh, that was pretty simple.
Speaker 3:So I feel like, holistically, it's been these subtle changes that we see, as well as helping them feel heard, and that autonomy is the underlying thing. And seeing patients more often, it's exciting to get to see these subtle little changes that, in the long run, are life changing. And yeah, like that patient I mentioned had that weird cough, oh, I had a pet for X amount of years and I didn't know if it was his pet and I didn't want to get rid of it. Good news, you don't have to, and I would never want you to have to get rid of a pet because of that. So all that's exciting and I know it's like not about me and how great that makes me feel, but it is a good day when you realize you've helped someone in such a way.
Speaker 2:In architecture and construction, there is a project manager who oversees the successful completion of a building. Their role involves coordination, communication and problem solving. They handle everything going on with that building Planning and scheduling, team coordination, quality assurance, risk management, client communication, communication the total package. But in modern health care, if I have a problem, you know, I have chest pains, or I go to the emergency room, they see me, I leave, I go to my doctor about something else, I'm on different medications. It's like you're a free agent out there and you got all these things going on and there's no project manager. You're on your own. And people who are caregivers, they're the project managers big time. So, coming full circle, all this is to say what you're offering is not only this community and connection. You're basically saying let us be project managers, we'll help you coordinate all the different components to your health care. And that alone is revolutionary, if not giving someone peace of mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love how you're saying that. I'm sitting over here smiling broadly, because that's exactly what our hope is is that we can steer the ship with you and coordinate some of those specialty visits right and taking all the information in from other providers or specialty providers that you have and making sure that everything still tracks and aligns, because that specialty provider is just worried about that one system, whereas we take into account the whole thing. So that really is the true role of a primary care provider, and I feel like our providers here are steering the ship you know herself.
Speaker 2:health is expanding rapidly. How many clinics do you have and what challenges and opportunities do you see as you bring this model to more women in Minnesota and maybe beyond?
Speaker 1:Great question. Love this question because I think that's our entire team's question. We just had an all teams talking about this very specific topic. What does 2026 and beyond look like for her self-health? And first up is some serious defunding because we are investment-backed. We're already at five clinics here in the Twin Cities metro. We just opened our fifth clinic and had our grand opening on Wednesday in Eagan, Minnesota. Yeah, we now have Crystal Minnesota, Roseville Minnesota, Highland Park, which is in St Paul, Lindale, which is South Minneapolis Really excited about the five clinics we have here. We're working on building a really strong foundation through the year of 2025 with process and workflow and shoring up lots of good things so that when we do expand come 2026, it is as smooth and as efficient as it can be so that we can provide these services to more women. We know there's a gap, we know there's a need. That isn't the question, it's how much and when.
Speaker 2:I think at this point, so, becca and Morgan, did we leave anything unsaid or anything you'd want to add?
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, I think so. I think there's so. I could talk all day about her self-help. I've been here six months and I truly feel not only is this my calling, but also, like I said, I think so many women are finding themselves again from the model that is her self-help, from this preventative quality model that we're trying so hard to build, and it's, frankly, really amazing to be a part of and then just also encourage.
Speaker 3:Like you said, like we were discussing, we want to hear from our patients. We want to know what's going right, we want to know what's going wrong, because our goal is to keep the focus on you. We want you to feel heard. We want herself health to grow in a way that's truly supportive of this demographic. And also we end Becca's whole titles every day where we get to check in with the team what are some things we're going to need to focus on? So-and-so's out. We have a patient schedule, things like that, and she ends every huddle with a phrase that I think she should say now.
Speaker 1:So we actually physically put our hands in and say let's go make a difference at 8.20 every morning before we see our first patient, and it's palpable, as cheesy as it sounds it is, and the team they let me know it's pretty cheesy but it also is true. I tell these folks every day on this team like we are making a difference we really are. All the little things matter and little things turn into big things. So if we can do the foundational little things right, what we've done has made a big difference here in the Twin Cities area.
Speaker 2:You know, as we wind down the hour, I have to say this conversation shines a light on a remarkable, much needed shift in healthcare for women 65 and older. It's timely, it's transformative and it's filling a void that has been overlooked for too long. What Becca and Morgan have shared today is more than innovation it's a revolution in care that honors women, respects their needs and empowers them to live their fullest lives. Becca Coomer and Morgan Lange, thank you so much for coming on, phil to Capacity. Thank you, pat.
Speaker 1:You're so sweet to have us, Pat. That was fantastic. I hope every woman 65 and older someday has the opportunity to experience truly patient-centered care.
Speaker 2:There, it is Right there. Thank you, friends, thank you for joining us today. Bye.
