During his years as a hospital emergency room doctor, Dr. Bruce Murray came across just about every injury and disease imaginable. The fast-paced, high-volume environment was great for honing his medical skills, but he wasn’t able to spend quality time with his patients like he wanted to. So, when he made the decision to leave the hospital and open his own practice, he went the concierge route, fulfilling a lifelong dream.
“I always said that if I was born 50 years earlier, I would have been a country doctor who took care of all the residents in a small town,” Dr. Murray told Vero Beach 32963. “I grew up on a farm in Michigan, and I’m a country boy at heart. Over the past several years I became disenchanted with medicine in general and the pressures to see more and more patients in less time. It would sometimes take patients months to book an appointment with a doctor and then have to wait in a crowded waiting room [for a brief consultation]. I wanted a different kind of experience for my patients.”
When he started to investigate what it meant to be a concierge doctor, he liked the model of direct primary care that works outside of government and insurance systems and provides an alternative for patients who want to avoid fee-for-service payments and third-party billing. Dr. Murray’s patients pay a flat yearly fee of only $3,000 for all their everyday preventative primary care and can see or talk to him as often as they like with no separate fees or copays for visits.
“I want my patients to know that I’m an advocate for them whether they are home, in my office or in the hospital,” Dr. Murray said. “No matter where they are, I can care for them. I can do house calls if appropriate, I can see them in the hospital, and I can spend as much time with them in office as I need to.
“My goal is to see between four to seven patients a day versus the 20-plus per day that often occurs in a corporate setting, so the care is far more relaxed and compassionate. I am still an affiliate staff member at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital, and I have full access to medical records, and I consider myself a liaison between the admitting and consult positions and the patients. I can help them navigate the sometimes-confusing world of medicine.
“Through the years I’ve established strong relationships with specialists and hospitalists and will act as your advocate should you need hospitalization.”
Membership with Murray Concierge Medicine covers all primary care services, including office visits, home and extended facility visits as medically necessary, hospital visits, minor office procedures, joint and trigger point injections, suturing, splinting, EKGs, diagnostic and wellness exams, phone calls, video conferencing, and arranging to see specialists with direct doctor-to-doctor communication.
It’s important to still maintain insurance or Medicare to cover expensive, unpredictable events like surgery, emergency room care, hospitalization, labs and X-rays.
“We can draw blood in the office, so they don’t have to go to another waiting room somewhere, but then we send it off site to a lab where it is billed directly to their insurance,” Dr. Murray said. “The same is true with X-rays and CT scans. We order those tests. The information from the patient and my orders go with the tests and those type of tests are billed to their insurance.
There are no additional charges from our office.
“Once the tests are completed, we will contact the patients and go over the results. We can manage all your prescriptions with any pharmacy in the country, which is a big benefit to seasonal residents who may need medication when they go back north. With the wonderful technology of telehealth and facetime we can prescribe electronically, eliminating the need for a paper prescription. The whole process is simplified.”
Perhaps the biggest advantage to the membership is direct access to Dr. Murray himself.
“Our mega-corporation is all of two people – myself and my sister Sandy, who’s been an RN for over 40 years,” Dr. Murray joked. “When a patient calls our office, she answers the phone.
After hours they have three options when they call: press 1 to leave a message and we’ll get back to them the following morning; press 2 and talk directly to Sandy on her cellphone; or press 3 and talk to me directly on my cellphone. We are the ones who will be seeing the patients, and if by chance I’m out of town, I will have a doctor covering for me.”
Prior to becoming a physician, Dr. Murray worked as a firefighter and paramedic and served as a major in the United States Air Force. He’s a proud Florida State University undergraduate who received his medical degree from Wayne State University in Detroit and completed his residency at Spectrum Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After spending time in the military at Eglin Air Force Base, he returned to Spectrum where he served as an assistant clinical professor for residents at Michigan State University College of Medicine. Most recently, he was an emergency room physician at Cleveland Clinic Indian River Hospital.
Murray Concierge Medicine is accepting new patients. The practice is located at 920 37th Place, Suite 103 in Vero Beach. To seek care, visit https://murraymedicine.com or contact Sandy Potter, RN, practice manager, at 772-226-6461.
