Spotlight Series
Guest Name: Dr. Ronald Baird
Credentials: MD – Helix Springs Family Center & Vgentle
Dr. Ronald Baird: all right well thanks for having me I appreciate the opportunity
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah absolutely K first off kind of tell us a little bit what about what made you decide to be a doctor in the route that you went and how like the course of history have has taken you to where you are today
Dr. Ronald Baird: yeah so I’ve wanted to be a doctor ever since I can remember I was probably eight or 10 years old when I started dreaming about being a doctor so it’s just kind of a lifelong goal and when I completed uh medical school I decided to do Family Practice which gave me the opportunity to do a wide range of things I remember in school I kept you would do a rotation and I’d do pediatrics like oh I love working with kids and then I’d deliver some babies and I’d go oh my gosh I love delivering babies and then I do Dermatology and it’s like oh my gosh skin is really cool you know and so so I end up liking all these different things I thought well Family Practice lets me do all those things you know and so so then uh after residency I uh just hung out a shingle and opened up private practice and uh was in private practice for about uh 15 years and just uh saw the typical run-of-the meal Family Practice I did kind of like the old school family doc I would do home visits I did surgeries I delivered babies uh I got into a lot of skin care and cosmetic stuff um just those things that I really enjoyed I grew that part of my practice and and uh and then over time uh became frustrated with the hospital system the insurance uh system the uh trend of medicine which is usually just prescribe and and throw medicines rather than try to solve problems and so you know in your in your world that would be you know recommend things like pelvic surgery as opposed to just some you know pelvic floor therapy which can solve 90% of the problems or more you know and and so this jump to let’s just throw drugs at you let’s just do surgeries let’s just do procedures and we’ll never really address the underlying problem became super frustrating to me um so probably 15 years ago I stopped doing uh deliveries in the hospital uh and shifted uh to out of Hospital deliveries and and help take care of Moms uh out of the hospital setting um I’ve made this shift from just prescribing medicines and the typical uh way medicine approach to more of a functional medicine approach which is to find the underlying cause of the problem and try to treat that try to help keep people healthy insurances don’t really like to reimburse for any of that and so it has shifted to uh a non-insurance based practice which is frustrating because I think insurances should cover this stuff I mean it’s certainly the healthier uh medicine approach um but they don’t and so in effort to make that affordable and reachable uh we established kind of a concierge medicine approach where people can come to our office and and pay a flat fee an adult would pay $75 a month and then get unlimited visits during the month uh for just a a $10 co-pay and then children uh can pay $10 a month and get unlimited visits uh with just a $10 co-pay so that’s often cheaper than what they would pay with their co-pay or their deductible um but it allows them a membership and access and then they get all their office visits and and stuff for free and if we have to order any out of Hospital test like an x-ray or blood test then their insurance company would pay for that uh and if they don’t have insurance then we have uh arrangements made for some really cash paid discounts that make that all affordable so part of the goal is to make medicine affordable and another part of that goal is to not be driven or mandated by insurance companies saying you have to do it this way um but we can actually just practice good medicine not insurance-based medicine um and so that’s kind of been the evolution of uh of the practice I still do a lot of Pediatrics I still do deliveries um I do lots of skin care uh work we have know seven or eight different lasers and lipos suction and and uh different uh treatments there that uh for that cosmetic world uh if people like that stuff um but then have gotten into the regenerative medicine as well so we do a lot of uh PRP treatments which stands for platelet rich plasma the idea behind those treatments is you’re stimulating your body to recruit stem cells uh to go and heal whatever the problem is there and and we could talk for hours about uh PRP but um we are the the only practice in Utah that is certified to do a method called perfect PRP the trademark method that uh stimulates 800% increase in stem cell uh Recruitment and uh so it’s a specialty type of PRP basically the big picture PRP is we draw the patient’s blood we spin it down we separate out the the nutritional factors platelets and other things that stimulate stem cells to heal and then we put that back in the body so um there’s not any foreign substances put back in the body it’s just 100% natural but uh promotes healing and and we do a lot of stuff in your world in the pelvic floor World there we have a laser that does uh stimulates collagen uh tightening and production uh in the vaginal wall that can help with stress urinary incontinence and then we do PRP injections that also can help especially with scarring if somebody’s had trauma uh from a delivery and they have a a point of uh scar tissue or anything there that uh is contributing to their P their pelvic pain uh or other aspects as well we can use PRP to really help treat those things so we dovetail a lot with uh practices like yours where we aren’t the gurus in the physical therapy aspect but we can help do that regenerative medicine uh piece and then turn it over to you guys to work your magic with the with the physical therapy side so anyway I love uh doing a more natural-based uh medicine uh being able to help people that way
Dr. Betty DeLass: cool what do you feel like makes you and your practice different within within all of these things
Dr. Ronald Baird: you know I I think there are a couple of things that that make us different one is um I part of my philosophy is I should educate the patient and help them make good choices so I’m not the kind of Doc that you come see and I just write a script say hey go do this see you later we spend a lot of time the average length of our visits are probably 45 minutes to an hour uh so there’s no rush in and out uh to see somebody uh you will know all the different treatment options uh and then the information needed to make a good choice um I don’t pretend to know it all I I have no problem saying I have no idea you know what to do here um and uh and so I’m really just straightforward if I know it I’ll say yeah I know this and I know it well or I’m not sure or I have no idea let’s send you here you know to these people that that this is their Guru their thing to do um um so I think that’s also a little bit unique in that uh I’m not afraid to to just say it as it is you know
Dr. Betty DeLass: love that who would you say is an ideal fit for you um as a patient
Dr. Ronald Baird: uh I think the ideal fit is somebody who wants to uh take control of their health who wants to do uh um that holistic approach that says I want to I want to take charge and I want to be healthy and I want to prevent illness and uh and I want somebody who’ll be just honest and straightforward uh about that we have a wide range of clients and and so it’s it’s like little niches you know little and and so you know for deliveries there’s certainly an ideal client for that type of delivery and there’s an ideal client client for the typical family practice stuff and there’s the ideal client for regenerative medicine so there’s that’s another thing that sets us apart is that we do so many different things um that we can cover this wide spectrum of needs for clients so
Dr. Betty DeLass: awesome okay what does the process look like to work with union company like how does someone just call do they need a referral do they just show up on your doorstep how do they how do they work with you
Dr. Ronald Baird: yeah either way the the most common is you just call and make an appointment and uh come in and we talk we uh frequently do free consultations uh um so that people can get to know us and feel comfortable um I didn’t mention it but in the functional medicine and regenerative medicine world we do a lot of hormone balancing so and we do bioidentical hormones for that for both men and women um but typically it’s just make a phone call call us make an appointment come on in and we visit and then you have options you don’t have to sign up for that monthly uh membership you can just you know pay per visit if you want um so and we have people that do both and and it’s all reasonably priced stuff so
Dr. Betty DeLass: awesome okay let’s um let’s switch gears just a little bit here and what would you say that recovery looks like through your lens of practice whether that’s someone who had a baby or maybe they’re transitioning into per menopausal menopausal and they’re wanting to do some of the hormone replacement what does that quote unquote recovery look like after a procedure after hormones after delivery like kind of give us a little gamut of what what your clinical ethos is on that
Dr. Ronald Baird: yeah so we really focus on U maintaining wellness and doing those things that help your body recover so depending obvious on what you’re recovering from uh you know after having a baby a a portion of that is trying to get sleep even though that’s super difficult with a newborn baby um but uh we incorporate uh diet we incorporate sleep and exercise and lifestyle routine and uh and we try to really just promote that uh maintaining Wellness approach you know most of our procedures don’t really have a downtime uh significant recovery the exception to that is uh lipo suction has certainly a a longer downtime but but things like PRP there’s very little to no downtime
Dr. Betty DeLass: um like a day two days two weeks like like an hour or two I mean a lot yeah yeah I mean it’s our audience will have those questions of like well how long is not very long
Dr. Ronald Baird: yeah yeah how long is not very long yeah most PRP treatments you can resume normal activity that same day you know you can have PRP to the uh first stress urinary incontinence and the studies that uh have been done with um with PRP this perfect PRP method in stress urinary in continence has uh 97% of the people after one treatment have significant Improvement and over 90% after three treatments feel like the issue is resolved um now that’s certainly there’s a a specific client that meets that CR criteria if somebody doesn’t have a huge prolapsing problem um you have to fix those issues outside of it but anyway uh you can do the PRP treatment and leave the office and resume normal activity there’s no downtime and uh so yeah most of the downtime is less than 24 hours and usually you can just go about your your day right afterwards
Dr. Betty DeLass: perfect perfect okay my next question for you is what’s something that most people don’t know that think that they should know
Dr. Ronald Baird: oh wow I think most people don’t know that they’re kind of being fed a lie or a message in the medical world uh and they don’t know that you can prevent 90% of the problems with with just taking charge of your diet and your lifestyle uh we have a huge huge problem uh in our country and um with diabetes and heart disease and stroke and Cancers and and you know well over 90% of everything you go see your doctor about could be prevented and uh and there’s no reason for anybody to develop type 2 diabetes for example and uh blood pressure problems and and uh and so there’s so many things that that uh we can do and right now in medicine the solution is well I’ll just throw a pill at you for this and a pill for that and and rather than addressing the underlying problems and uh I think that’s what most people don’t know is that there’s actually Solutions not just medicines uh and that you can be healthy it takes some discipline it’s not not easy you gota yeah you got to be responsible you got to be an adult you know you gotta all work is hard either work hard at at curing your sicknesses because of your lifestyle choices or you work hard on your lifestyle and not maybe not have to deal with some of that stuff
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah yep hey awesome is there anything special that you want to promote to the audience watching at all
Dr. Ronald Baird: you know we would love to support your clients and if you had clients that you felt like could benefit from uh PRP uh treatment or a laser uh treatment if they mentioned you in this little video we’d give them 50% off their their treatment when they came in and we’ do a free consult for them and help them understand uh how we could potentially help them
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah thank you so much awesome yeah um and then my final last question that I love asking everyone is what do you want to be known for
Dr. Ronald Baird: um professionally or just in life I think those are two different questions
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah both
Dr. Ronald Baird: in life it has nothing to do with medicine I want to be a good honest man a good loving father I want to be uh Christlike I want to uh just be known for uh being an overall good caring person love um uh someone who tried to do what was right in spite of whatever adversary was there so um as far as professionally um I would like to be known uh for someone who was loving and caring who listened uh and who explained things clearly and gave good viable options that were tailored to meet the patients needs uh in whatever area that is so
Dr. Betty DeLass: amazing what a good end to the the spotlight Series yeah okay where can we find you Dr. Baird website Practice phone number social media and all of the above
Dr. Ronald Baird: so we have two different websites the family practice uh website is called Helix Springs it’s just Helixsprings.com all of our uh regenerative and cosmetic stuff is under Vgentle the letter v like Victor in the word gentle Vgentle.com uh but our phone number for both places is the same it’s a easy phone number it’s 801 796 and then the word baby or 2229 so 796 baby and uh we are on Main Street in Lehi and would love to have people come by and and visit this and just with you
Dr. Betty DeLass: yep awesome well thank you so much Dr. Baird for your time on this Spotlight series it’s been a pleasure chatting with you again and we look forward to commun um collaborating in the community with you
Dr. Ronald Baird: well thank you know hope to work with you and your patients as well so that would be great
Dr. Betty DeLass: yeah so