We recently connected with William Steelman and have shared our conversation below.

Hi William, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory of how you established your own practice.

When we set out to start Steelman Medical Group we knew we wanted to be different than the traditional fee for service clinic. We felt our patients deserved access to a physician like a family member or friend. Someone they could call or text when they had a question or weren’t feeling well. This model of care, Direct Primary Care, is relatively new. We are one of about 8,000 clinics across the country that are participating in this physician led movement. Thankfully this movement is growing at a rapid rate!

When we set up our office it was just my wife and I. Neither of us had ever run a medical clinic before but what we did understand was the patient experience. We knew we wanted a clinic where patients could come in same day or next day for appointments, had open lines of communication with myself and our staff, no wait times, and full transparency when it came to their billing. When we couldn’t find exactly what we were looking for we decided to just create it ourselves.

We started our practice small; a micro practice. We fully funded it ourselves and carefully watched our overhead as we began to grow. Together, my wife and I built Steelman Medical Group from the ground up, with the intention of providing exceptional heath care without the hassles of third party interests. We didn’t know how the community would embrace this model; we just took a leap of faith and trusted the process.

Today, Steelman Medical Group is growing at rapid rates. Turns out this model of care not only works, it is highly effective at keeping people well and lowering patient costs. In addition, it has become an excellent model for employers, keeping their costs low while keeping their employees healthy and happy.

I don’t have a single regret about how we began Steelman Medical Group except to have started it years ago. We are a family run business. When you call the office you’ll still be greeted by my wife or one of our daughters. You’ll meet them in the office or hear the giggles of our toddler over the phone. If we deliver meds to your home or office, it will likely be my father in law that drops them off. We believe in hand written birthday cards and knowing our patients as people. We are more than just a doctors office. We believe that our patients become our family and we welcome you in to ours.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I was born in Virginia Beach. Son to a US Navy family. I moved along the Eastern seaboard until finally settling in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. I attended Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, graduating with a BS in Chemistry, before heading to graduate school in Pharmacology and Toxicology and then finally Osteopathic medical school at Kansas City University of Medicine and Biosciences.

I completed his Internal Medicine residency in York, Pennsylvania and moved on independently to gain as much experience from as many mentors as possible.

I have done extensive work in the hospital and medical office setting and after more than 12 years in practice, have now opened the doors of Steelman Medical Group, a dream years in the making. When laying the foundation for Steelman Medical Group, I desired to create an organization that didn’t face the unnecessary burdens of government and insurance and my goal is to focus only on his patients and their needs.

I am very proud of Steelman Medical Group and our ability to provide patients top quality care at a reasonable price and without the burdens of third parties. We believe in “Healthcare without the Hassle”.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

Steelman Medical Group was fully funded on our own. We chose not to take out large loans and be burdened with high interest rates. Our goal was to keep our overhead as low as possible so that we could focus on high quality patient care and keeping our costs as low as possible meant we could keep our monthly membership prices as low as possible. That also meant we didn’t have a large marketing budget to work with. In the beginning I was worried that would hinder our ability to grow, however that hasn’t been the case at all. In fact, the largest driver of new patients at our clinic is word of mouth from current patients. When we treated our patients like humans and provided them with top quality care in a welcoming environment, they began to tell their friends. Those friends now tell their friends and without spending any money on marketing we are exploding with new growth.

For us, we chose to not focus on growing our clientele. We trusted that if we treated our current patients with the respect and care the deserve they would market for us; and they have done so over and over again.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I love this question because my business partner is my wife. We met while both working for the same hospital years ago. She is not clinical which makes us such a great team. While I can focus on “doctoring” she maintains the business end of things.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.steelmanmedicalgroup.com
• Instagram: @steelmanmedicalgroup
• Facebook: @steelmanmedicalgroup
• Linkedin: @steelmanmedicalgroup
• Twitter: @steelmanmedicalgroup

Image Credits

True Expressions Photography