What are the ages of patients at Plum Health DPC?

DetroitEducationFamily Medicine
Written By Paul Thomas

How Old are the Patients at Plum Health DPC?

We are often asked how old are your patients at your practice?

First of all, we are primary care physicians and family medicine doctors, and that means that we take care of patients of all ages and stages. All patients are welcome at our practice regardless of age.

Currently, our youngest patient is two months old and our oldest patient is 102 years old. That being said the majority of our members at Plum Health DPC are between the ages of 20 and 65 years. 

I think there are a number of factors at play that cause the majority of our patients to be in that demographic.

First of all, we are a primarily urban practice, and we take care of several young urban professionals who are highly mobile and without children. Detroit and Southeast Michigan has a strong economic output, that attracts top talent to the region in various professions like law, medicine, automotive engineering, and others. Perhaps we would have more pediatric patients if we were in a suburban community where there are more children and families.

Second, the people that I know trust me and are more likely to become my patients. The people that I know are mostly my age, plus or minus a few years. That probably skews our data or the number of patients in our practice who are around the age of 33 somewhat.

Third, our country provides health insurance coverage for people under age 26 through the affordable care act. As long as a child’s parents have health insurance, that child will be covered under their parents’ health insurance plan. Also, those individuals over 65 are covered by Medicare, and because they may be on a fixed income they may be less inclined to seek out a direct primary care practice where they have to pay over and above their Medicare coverage.

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Even thought we take care of patients of all ages and stages, one thing that we don’t do in our practice is deliver babies.

If you Don’t Deliver Babies, Who Do you Recommend for Obstetric Services?

We don’t deliver babies in our office and we don’t have hospital privileges to deliver babies at the hospital. However, we do take care of moms and growing babies during the first trimester of pregnancy. During that first trimester visit, we can perform a pregnancy test and also screen for conditions that may be harmful to the growing fetus, like blood sugar testing, sexually transmitted infection testing, and making sure there’s no bacteria in the urine.

During the second and third trimesters, we make sure to coordinate care with practicing Obstetricians and Gynecologists who are trusted in our community. We’ve developed a list of trusted professionals in Metro Detroit and we share it here to help our patients and the greater community find the Doctors or Midwives who can help them with a successful delivery.

This list includes doctors that we have worked with personally and doctors who our patients and greater community members have had great experiences with. Here’s that list:

Essam Khraizat, MD

Paige E. Paladino DO

Cara Speier, DO with Beaumont

Dr. Soheyla Pezeshki

Beata Weiermiller, MD at Somerset Gynecology and Obstetrics

Eastside Gynecology & Obstetrics, P.C

Women First OB/GYN Center 

IHA Nurse Midwives in Ann Arbor

Covenant Community Care

  • Address: 27776 Woodward Ave, Royal Oak, MI 48067

  • Phone: (248) 556-4900

  • Appointments: covenantcommunitycare.org

  • Able to care for Medicaid-enrolled patients

Paul Thomas
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