Dr. Ronald Williams, of Onalaska, poses for a portrait on Friday afternoon in Onalaska in front of an ambulance he purchased for $4,000 and uses as the office for his mobile medical practice, Shoestring Valley Medical Care.
Dr. Ronald Williams looks in one of the side mirrors on his ambulance, which he uses as a mobile medical practitioner's office around the Onalaska area.
Dr. Ronald Williams sits in his office — a used ambulance — on Friday in Onalaska.
Dr. Ronald Williams encourages anyone without insurance to come and talk to him about medical care at his office — a used ambulance — on Friday at a gas station in Onalaska.
Dr. Ronald Williams speaks to a couple about medical care on Friday in Onalaska.
In this July 2012 file photo, Dr. Ronald Williams poses for a portrait in Onalaska in front of an ambulance he purchased for $4,000 and used as the office for his mobile medical practice Shoestring Valley Medical Care.
An Onalaska doctor has opened a mobile clinic in an old ambulance and takes cash for consultations with the idea of providing inexpensive, immediate care that is available even to those without insurance.
Dr. Ronald Williams quit his job after six years at Steck Medical Group in Chehalis in June as a protest to President Barack Obama’s Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the current medical system.
“I’m so opposed to Obamacare, I wanted out,” said the self-described conservative Republican. “I want to take the middle people out so it’s just me and the patient.”
Williams, the grandson of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond, a one-time segregationist and powerful politician, said he is concerned that the new law will create more government interference in a system already plagued with problems due to insurance companies and medical malpractice lawyers determining care.
“I’m not going to attack Obamacare,” he said. “I just offer an alternative.”
Williams, 52, opened Shoestring Valley Medical Care just before the Fourth of July.
The rural Onalaska resident has provided emergency and urgent care medicine in Lewis County for more than 25 years.
He previously worked as an emergency room physician for 10 years at Morton General Hospital, before he was fired in December 2005 after a disagreement with the hospital board over the hiring of a new chief executive officer. Williams also spent several years at Providence Centralia Hospital during the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The 1981 University of Washington Medical School graduate has converted an old ambulance into a mobile office so he can make house calls, schedule appointments and take walk-in patients. Williams sets up his clinic for same-day appointments outside of Brenda’s Country Market in Onalaska on Fridays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and may practice elsewhere depending on the need.
Brenda Elliott, who owns the market and has been a patient of Williams’ for 25 years, said the new service will be an asset to the community because many elderly people like her 78-year-old father could benefit from house calls and same-day appointments.
“If you’re elderly, you want to go now or forget it,” she said.
Elliott said the service addresses a need in the community by giving the uninsured treatment options.
“They can afford an office visit and their medication if they go to him,” Elliott said.
The Economic Opportunity Institute projects that 12,600 Lewis County residents, or 16 percent of the population, will have no health insurance by the end of next year.
Williams aims to provide an alternative for treatment of minor acute illnesses or injuries like urinary tract infections, sinus infections or cuts.
“I’d like to treat simple things that people have an idea of what’s wrong,” he said.
Williams will provide labs and imaging orders that patients can have done at a local medical facility when necessary. Patients with problems requiring extensive treatment will be referred to the appropriate medical provider.
Patients can call ahead and Williams will tell them if he can treat them or if another provider would offer more appropriate care.
“I’m free to do that now,” he said. “When I worked at Steck that was interfering with their business.”
Williams will charge $50 for a basic visit for uninsured patients. Throughout his 30 years in medicine, Williams said he has often seen the uninsured pay outrageous amounts of money for simple procedures.
“This county doesn’t need more practices. It needs more efficient ones,” he said. “They are no longer forced to pay insurance rates.”
Those with insurance will also pay around $50 at the time of service. The doctor will provide necessary documentation so patients can bill their insurance company for reimbursement of the cost minus the co-pay. Williams said he aims to charge a reasonable, flexible fee depending on time factors involved in the evaluation and the level of medical decision-making required.
Williams said he would charge less for visits requiring little time or for problems patients have self-diagnosed and he simply agrees then writes the necessary prescription. In fact, he said, that is one of the things he used to get in trouble for doing at Steck.
Patients will pay an appropriate cost for medical supplies or equipment when they are used. However, Williams will not have narcotics or controlled substances available due to safety concerns.
He will carry small amounts of basic medicines like antibiotics so patients will not have to visit a pharmacy right away when they are not feeling well.
The new business, he said, will allow him to spend more time with patients which will improve the quality of care. At Steck, Williams said, he usually saw 30 to 50 patients in a 12-hour day.
“It’s not a good way to practice medicine,” he said.
He aims to reduce that number to around 20 patients daily at SVMC. Williams said he saw many patients at Steck who said they had to wait to come in because they weren’t well enough to travel to the doctor. In addition, he notes, that urgent care centers and emergency facilities often have long wait times.
Williams said because he won’t have the overhead most medical facilities do, he can offer more affordable care to patients. And he will no longer be forced to order unnecessary tests for fear of a medical malpractice suit or prescribe the medications of the insurance companies choice.
“I hope we can contribute by providing alternative, more cost-effective treatment and less hassle than the current system,” he said.
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Amy Nile: (360) 807-8235
