This post is a game changer for me. You know how many times I’ve asked for recommendations for a local general practitioner?! Every time I went to visit a new one, my experience has been not the best (I will leave the negative reviews to Yelp). I would resort to going back to Manhattan to see my old doctor which I’ve been seeing for years and he still has no clue who I am and once even said my B.M.I was too high?! It’s all muscle!!

I’ve been looking for a local family doctor that won’t treat me like a number ever since we moved here. DRS Medical Associates opened its doors about four months ago and they invited me to tour their office. I got to chat with Dr. Ritu and Dr. Ray and I absolutely loved their approach. They actually pride themselves on developing relationships with their patients, it’s like a small-town doctor’s office. Bringing it back old school where the same doctor takes care of the whole family!

People often ask me for a general Doctor recommendation, well here it is!!

What are your names? Dr. Ritu Sharma.

Dr. Ray Santos.

And what do you guys do?

Ray: We’re doctors.

Ritu: Doctors for kids and adults.

What does DRS stand for?

Ray: Dr. Ritu Sharma and Dr. Ray Santos.

Oh! You guys have the same initials.

Ritu: Coincidentally.

How do you know each other?

Ray: We went to medical school together, residency together, and I think we were only apart for one year. She decided to join another group and that didn’t work out and I recruited her over to us. We’ve been together since 2001.

So you’ve been friends for a long time?

Ritu: Yeah, fifteen years. It’s hard to work with a partner because you may not have the same style. But we went to the same school, we went to the same residency, and we worked for the same hospital for five years so we often have a similar style. Even if we disagree we still understand each other. It’s seamless as opposed to where you see different doctors. These people didn’t choose to work with each other, they just happened to be in the same group while we chose to work together.

What is your approach to medicine?

Ray: It’s patient and family-centered. We take care of each other’s families, that’s our motto.

And you get to know the patient.

Ray: Oh absolutely.

Ritu: We see it as a relationship especially since we like to see the whole entire family. That way we understand their history, their family’s history, their social history, and then we based their treatment off of that. Some doctors treat symptoms not patients, “Oh, you have a cough? Here’s this antibiotic.” You may not need an antibiotic, in fact, you may not even be sick. Let me listen to your story. You go to another doctor’s office and they’re trying to get you in and out very quickly.

Ray: We feel like a small town doctor in a big city. We treat you as a person and we listen to you and get to know you and your situation. The recommendations that we give you fits what’s best for you and we collaborate with you. Unfortunately, medicine is evolving in a different way now that some people feel like they’re getting treated like a number. We’re going against the grain because where we came from there are big hospital systems, and we were not happy in that situation.

So you are general practitioners?

Ritu: Yeah. We’re board certified in internal medicine and pediatrics. We were crazy enough to study twice. It was important for us so that way we can understand it. Pediatricians have such a small perspective on things since they’re only looking at kids and they forget the rest of the family. If they remember the rest of the family, they’re unable to treat them, we can actually do that. When you deal with kids, you’re treating the entire family at the same time. We see a lot of newborns and newborns can’t get a lot of vaccines so we have to protect them from diseases. So grandma and grandpa who are taking care of them have to be vaccinated and the pediatrician can recommend it, but they can never do it. We can actually do it.

Some patients, unfortunately, do like that bureaucratic approach, fast food medicine. We are not fast food medicine at all. If you like that this is not the location for you by any means.

Ray: We’re a small practice, just the two of us, you’re not going to see anyone else.

Ritu: It’s either him or me and we’re here seven days a week.

Are you BOTH here seven days a week?

Ritu: At least one of us is here seven days a week.

Seven days a week?!

Ray: We’re open seven days a week,  eight o’clock in the morning.

Ritu: You can’t beat our hours. We’re here Monday through Thursday, 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Do you take walk-ins?

Ritu: Yes. Just give us a call and we’ll tell you exactly when to come in and you’ll get an appointment the same exact day.

You have all these doctors who look at a number and they’re not looking at the person.

I feel like doctors are so quick to give medicine and prescriptions. Especially in the United States, there’s a huge issue of people abusing medicine.

Ritu: For us, some patients expect medication so we’ll have unhappy patients and I’m okay with that. They may come to us and I may say, “You don’t need any medicine,” because you don’t. We may say things like that to you and I may never write you a prescription. Personally, I love teaching patients on natural ways to deal with your chronic problems.

So you guys are into holistic medicine.

Ray: Yes, absolutely. They may be a little unhappy and I put it in a different perspective. You come to me for my recommendations and these are my recommendation. The body has a great way of healing yourself, give it a chance. If you’re not getting better, we’re here seven days a week! Come back, give me a call, shoot me an email.

What about insurance?

Ritu: Pretty much every insurance, there’s very few that we aren’t participating in.

There are people that I know that don’t have health insurance. What do those people do?

Ritu: In this area, sometimes it’s actually cheaper not to have insurance than to have insurance. If you’re a young healthy person, by the time you pay your premiums and your deductibles and your co-pays—it’s too expensive. We have a fee schedule that is cheaper than most deductibles. God forbid you need shots or vaccines, we literally give it to you at cost. We’re still giving you the benefit of it, but we’re not profiting from it at all. As far as medications we try to work with local pharmacies to help you pay for affordable medicines as well too. We try to keep it in the small business realm.

Ray: It’s an option too, we have payment plans if you need to.

Ritu: Right, if it’s a little overwhelming we’ll put you on a payment plan. We have a lot of self-pay patients because we have a lot of grandmas and grandpas coming from other countries. It’s affordable and it’s not going to break the bank.

Ray: For self-pay there’s a different schedule and for insurance it’s through the insurance company.

Personalized care is obviously better.

Ray: That’s exactly what it is.

Are you guys from Jersey City?

Ritu: I used to live in Jersey City, I love the area, and I love the people that live here. Very young professionals are misguided in health and these are such formidable years. In your twenties and thirties if you start learning good habits you don’t have to worry about at forty, “He was healthy and had a heart attack.” I thought it was a great location for us.

How long has this location been open?

Four months.

Ray: It’ll be four months in March. My wife was born and raised in Jersey City. I grew up in Bergenfield, I went to school in Hoboken, and before we got married she was always here through our dating years.

Do you guys have a favorite hangout spot in Jersey City?

Ray: Kraverie.

Ritu: Kraverie’s great, Sawadee, and Orale, those would be my three favorites.

Anything else you’d like people to know?

Ray: Come check us out. We’re here for everybody even after your work hours we’re here. we see your kids, we see you and if you don’t have any kids that’s okay.

Ritu: We’ll see anybody and everybody.

Ray: We’ll see your whole family. I don’t want to sound like Olive Garden, but we treat you like family.

Ritu: Our motto literally is “Our family caring for yours.” If you want to come to a family environment this is the place for you. If you’re looking to understand your health and your body we’re happy to have you learn with us as well. In fact, we prefer you come when you’re not sick so we can understand you.

DRS Medical Associates

115 Columbus Drive,

Suite 301, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302

(201) 706-3808

https://www.facebook.com/DRSmedicalassociates/

http://www.drsmedicalassociates.com