09/11/2019
Hi Everyone,
My name is Joe Councill and I am a Psychiatric APRN that has owned and operated my own practice here in Bellevue Nebraska for the past 3 years and prior to that having worked at Lutheran Family Services providing Indigent care to persons with Severe and Persistent Mental Illness.
Prior to March 2019 I was teaching at Clarkson College full time and operating my practice part time (2 days a week). After 15 years at the College teaching BSN Nurses, Family Nurse Practitioners and other levels of nursing professionals I decided that I would prefer to practice full time as I found I enjoyed my interactions with and helping persons to achieve recovery more than I did my teaching role.
Prior to leaving the college I had been booked out 60-90 days for new appointments which is still shorter than the industry standard.
Between late March and now I have moved through my waiting list (so to speak) and now have immediate openings for medication management appointments as many as 5 patients per week (within a week or two at most).
I think what makes me different and unique as a provider is the time that I allot for new appointments 2 hours (with the industry standard being 45-60 minutes). My follow up appointments are 30 minutes with the industry standard being 15-20. I prefer to take my time with each and every person I see and to get to know them, their stressors, and constraints to recovery. I use a shared decision model regarding treatment decisions. The time I spend and my shared decision model allows me to more accurately help/treat each person and to not medicate situational factors.
I use research based scales (for example the CUDOS Depression and CUDOS Anxiety scale) to evaluate patient symptoms at each appointment to increase accuracy of treatment and measurement efficacy of symptom response to medications. This allows the person/patient to achieve maximum wellness on the lowest dose and the lowest amount of medications. I don’t believe in overmedicating persons/patients and my average patient is prescribed 1-2 medications at most. I practice collaborative care with the patients therapy providers and other providers and will generally return calls to other providers (based on severity/urgency within a day or two at most.
I am well versed on the neurobiology of the different illnesses I treat and place a strong emphasis on teaching neurobiology at a patient appropriate level to each person I see so that they understand the areas of the brain that may not be functioning accurately/adequately and what we are attempting to change/improve through psychopharmacology in order to further their journey in recovery. My knowledge of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics as well as neurobiology allows me to tailor treatment to the persons/patients specific symptom clusters often achieving more rapid improvement.
We offer genetic testing at an affordable cost to help guide treatment and the selection of agents that are less likely to cause side effects. I am conservative in my use of genetic testing and generally test only when persons have not experienced improvement or have experienced side effects with multiple (2—3 agents).
My hope in posting this is that some of you may read it and have persons that are in need of medication management that may be on a waiting list to see a specialized provider or may need more specialized help than their primary care physician has been able to, or can provide. I am hoping to continue growing my practice to sustain my now full time commitment to helping other. I keep a close eye on patient numbers and scheduling so that if needed persons having emergent/urgent needs are able to always get in within 48-72 hours of contacting us at most for follow up.
If you have a client whom is in need of help please feel free to provide them with our contact number (402) 881-0678 so that we can work together to help them achieve the wellness they desire.
I am credentialed with the majority of major insurance plans and have reasonable cash rates for those that are uninsured or insured by a company that I am not credentialled with.
Currently the only major insurance companies I am not credentialled with are UHC/UMR and Medicaid/Medicare.
