Today we’d like to introduce you to Jessica Fashant-Peterson.
Hi jessica, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
It goes back to being a nurse over twenty years ago now and wanting to help patients make the decisions that are the best for them, both for their health and that align with their values, that I went back to school to become a Family Nurse Practitioner. I have a heart for working with the most in need so I spend my first years at a federally qualified health center and Hennepin County’s emergency department. Due to the pressures of balancing the high stakes decision making, balancing a growing family and personal health issues I ended up working in an integrative practice with a chiropractor, physical therapists, massage therapists and exercise therapists. Now when I was out of school I thought statins, medication for high cholesterol, should be in the water because everyone would benefit from medication intervention to treat lifestyle modifiable disease. In this “pain clinic” I barely prescribed any medications and was exposed to the collaborative approach between multiple different disciplines, including dietary and lifestyle changes, that were actually healing people. I then experimented with start-up healthcare companies to help change what is being delivered including a company called RetraceHealth that has since been rebranded and is nation-wide, and more recently contributing to the growth of a small independent clinic to six clinics strong. The pressures to keep it financially viable, in a fee-for-service business, lead to shorter medical appointments, less time with patients, and less ability to incorporate both traditional medical interventions with integrative therapy options. So, the next step was to change how healthcare is being reimbursed if we really want to provide health to our patients! Hence, the Direct Primary Care membership model for healthcare that allows us the time to incorporate traditional, lifestyle, functional, integrative and holistic medicine to truly prevent and get to the root cause of disease. So people can feel their best and have increased health across their life span.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Well, initially I was planning to slowly wean into having my own practice over the course of a year. My husband even joked that while we were doing a lot of our own constructio that it was a pretty expensive “she-shed.” However, my employer saw this as a conflict of interest and I was launched into full-time practice! I equate it to having a baby…you will never know enough, have enough money or be completely ready…but you have to just do it. And it truly was the only way to go, putting all my professional time and energy into the practice was necessary for growth. There was one major set-back in the construction and occasional small set-backs with growth and of course learning new things every day about the business side of healthcare. All of these things aside, especially in the beginning, the doors just continued to open and it felt like the energy in the world was willing My NP Direct into fruition.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
As I mentioned in my initial story, I came out of school a strong type A personality, research-driven and standard of care rule follower. I literally thought statin medications, the ones that treat cholesterol, should just be in the water for everyone to have. Through my experiences working with patients, and through my own health struggles, I found that only utilizing the standard of care was rarely ever enough. Getting into the medication to treat another medication’s side effects until someone has clinical numbers that look good but they feel terrible, and now struggling to be compliant with so many medications, never actually optimized health. And that lifestyle interventions and getting into the root cause of disease really had the most powerful effect in an individuals overall wellbeing. And my own health journey has forced me to embrace more of a Type B personality. There are plenty of evidenced-based integrative therapies out there that are very safe and effective for many people but traditional medicine doesn’t see them as powerful enough, or perhaps more time consuming than just prescribing a pill, so they do not incorporate them into standard practice recommendations. I have so many things that people with asthma, allergies, headaches, gastrointestinal issues, hormonal and energy imbalances, autoimmunity…that I can use to literally put people into remission from their disease and get rid of their symptoms. And I can bring in alternative modalities like IV therapy, other specialists like an acupuncturist and psychologist who work out of the office with me that we can work as a team to help just about anyone feel better if not their best!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
Honestly, some of my favorite childhood memories have to do with sneaking out at night with my friends and just running around the neighborhood. We would dive behind bushes when cars would come, play games like kick the can, switch the neighbors hoses… Nothing illicit, except for perhaps a couple of toilet paperings as I got older, mostly for the thrill of doing things we weren’t supposed to be doing. In reflexion with this question I haven’t considered before, I wonder if pushing the limits, boundaries and rules a little bit, has always been something more exciting for me and that is why I have pursued to challenge the status quo. It may have made me a bit of a difficult daughter and student but as an adult it seems to have helped keep me moving and not staying complacent.
Pricing:
- Initial visits are $180 and over an hour long.
- Primary Membership $68 per month
- Family Members $24 per month
- Annual labs are about $34
- Full hormone panels are about $100
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mynpdirect.com
- Instagram: mynpdirect
- Facebook: My NP Direct
