Invested in Patients’ Health
LSR Wellness, a flourishing concierge medicine practice founded by Dr. Lauren S. Rosen, offers a timely, proactive, and personalized alternative to traditional primary care.
Lauren S. Rosen, M.D., remembers the day in June 2020 when everything changed. She was working as a physician for a large health system at the time, and she believed the constraints of the traditional healthcare model were preventing her from practicing medicine in a way that patients deserved. As someone who had devoted her life to making strong connections with her patients, she felt compelled to leave what she considered an untenable situation.
“I just had the spark of ‘I can’t do this anymore,’” recalls Dr. Rosen, a board-certified internist who earned her doctorate from MCP Hahnemann University in Philadelphia. “We are in a world where medical systems have become business systems, and that doesn’t work well all the time, especially when it comes to primary care. Every doctor wants to spend as much time as possible with their patients, but doctors don’t have as much autonomy in a system. That’s not good for a field in which doctors need to be independent thinkers.
“When you love your career and your chosen path,” she continues, “you want to hold onto the memories of what drew you down that path and find ways around the obstacles in front of you. That’s what led my partners and me back to what brought us to medicine in the first place: building relationships with people based on their medical needs and concerns, and their lives as a whole.”
In October 2021, Dr. Rosen and her husband, Adam, founded LSR Wellness, a Haverford-based concierge medicine practice that provides primary care to residents of Bala Cynwyd, Bryn Mawr, Gladwyne, Villanova, and surrounding communities. Its mission: to “partner” with patients who value timely, proactive, and personalized care, and to offer as much attention as they need in the areas of preventative care, chronic disease management, and men’s and women’s health, among others. The practice even offers house calls.
“I wanted to go back to the way medicine used to be practiced, where the entire staff not only knows patients by name but also knows them as people,” she says. “What I love most about medicine is the patient relationships you get to form. I’ve had some patients since 2001, so it becomes a lifelong relationship. It’s a remarkable honor to be able to talk to someone about what’s going on in their life.”
At LSR Wellness, every aspect of the patient experience is designed to make the patient feel welcomed and valued, with their health at the forefront. As opposed to the sterile, clinical feel of most doctors’ offices, LSR Wellness’s office boasts warm colors, engaging artwork, and “delicious velvet chairs,” as Dr. Rosen calls them. An in-house laboratory allows for expedient screening results, while a convenient messaging app fosters easy communication with doctors and other members of the LSR staff.
“One of the greatest things we can do is reduce the time and energy people spend ping-ponging between urgent care, the ER, and other [medical] services that aren’t necessarily talking to each other,” Dr. Rosen says. “Say someone wakes up with a rash. Before they rush off to the workday, they can contact us through our app and say, ‘I have this rash,’ and we’ll ask them to send us a picture of it. In a matter of seconds we can figure out if it needs to be treated, if it needs to be biopsied, or if it’s nothing to worry about. Not only does it expedite care, but we can also reduce the patient’s anxiety. If we can do something to keep them out of the ER, that’s an absolute win.”
LSR Wellness spends a lot of time talking with each patient about the importance of lifestyle issues such as exercise, nutrition, sleep, and social/emotional health. In addition, the practice offers value-added services designed to foster good habits—namely, access to a health coach, discounted membership to a local fitness center with multiple locations, and partnerships with other local wellness-minded organizations, such as MovementRx Studio in Wynnewood.
“Whether someone is 25 or 85, we want to make sure they stay moving and are eating healthy, and that they have a good understanding of what their labs mean,” Dr. Rosen says. “We also participate in activities like Walk With a Doc, which is an international organization started by a cardiologist in Ohio. (Editor’s note: Andrew Rosner, M.D., another LSR Wellness physician, participates in group Peloton rides through Ride With a Doc.) In September, I met about 15 people at Chanticleer [in Wayne] and we walked the grounds for about an hour. We’ve done some other things like that with patients to show that there are so many ways of staying active as part of their overall health.”
The practice has grown considerably since its founding three years ago. Dr. Rosner, who is board certified in family medicine, joined in May 2023. A third physician, Michele Hirsch, M.D., who, like Dr. Rosen, is board certified in internal medicine, will come aboard in January 2025.
“It’s really important to work with colleagues who are like-minded,” Dr. Rosen says. “We all appreciate that we get to practice medicine this way; none of us wanted to lose that connection with patients. I met Dr. Rosner when he reached out to us and said he was looking to make a change. A year and a half in, I’m very grateful to have him as part of our practice.
“With Dr. Hirsch, I had the opportunity to work with her at my former practice, and we kept in touch,” she continues. “I know firsthand the value she brings to the doctor-patient relationship, and I know how her patients feel about her. She will fit right in here at LSR.”
LSR Wellness’s staff also has four medical assistants, an office manager, and a membership coordinator, as well as Adam Rosen, who runs the operations side of the practice. All are, in Dr. Rosen’s words, “vital links in the chain.” As the practice embarks on an expansion to increase the square footage of its current location, Dr. Rosen is already thinking about future growth; she can easily envision a day when the practice adds a fourth physician.
“Adam and I have grown this practice together, and that’s a rewarding thing to do as a couple,” she adds. “You could be the best doctor on the planet, but you also need the office to run well and make sure the staff feels valued. I am very appreciative of what we’ve built, which feels like a growing community. The practice is succeeding, and that’s amazing.”
LSR Wellness
551 W. Lancaster Ave., Suite 205
Haverford, PA 19041
(610) 726-0098
www.lsrwellness.com
551 W. Lancaster Ave., Suite 205
Haverford, PA 19041
(610) 726-0098
www.lsrwellness.com
Photo by Patrick Snook
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, October 2024.
