Pregnancy and Family Care Centers
After nearly 14 years of private practice in the northeast San Francisco Bay, my family and I felt a calling to become part of something larger and perhaps more significant. Since medical school, I had prepared myself to be a community-based family physician in a small group. I had always envisioned myself as being an integral part of my community, providing comprehensive, excellent medical care to families.
In Benicia, I think I reached my goal and I thoroughly loved the patients and the area in which we lived. It didn’t hurt that we were located in one of the most beautiful regions in the country. We were 40 miles from downtown San Francisco, yet a world away in a modern, small town.
Life can be funny and strange, however. When I was planning to make some changes to the structure of my practice, my wife suggested that before I act I check a website called “One More Soul” to see if, perhaps, God wasn’t calling me to do something different.
After looking at the listings on the site (solely to appease her) I became interested in a group called Culture of Life Family Services (COLFS), a non-profit San Diego organization that operates the Pregnancy and Family Care Centers (PFCC) in San Diego and Escondido. It wasn’t long before I joined Dr. Nicholas Jauregui on the medical staff of PFCC.
COLFS is the brainchild of Dr. Jauregui and his ultrasonographer wife, Marya, which has become the dream and the cause of many San Diegans who are dedicated to its mission of “promoting a culture of life by improving the physical, social, and spiritual health of the community.” COLFS’ tremendous grassroots support has led to the complete transformation of a decrepit 7,500 square-foot building in Escondido into a beautiful, spacious, modern suite of offices, exam rooms, and community meeting space.
Many of the materials in the renovation were reclaimed from demolition projects. This reuse of building materials is remarkable in and of itself and is a great “green” story.
The Pregnancy and Family Care Centers offer the full range of family medicine from obstetrics to geriatric care (from the womb to the tomb). We have a special focus in providing medical assistance and psychological support to women and their families with crisis pregnancies.
Many times, women with crisis pregnancies are frightened and in a state of panic. They don’t really realize what all their options are and what assistance is available to them. We provide them with nurturing support and honest information.
We seek a model of “classless” medical care where, in our waiting room, you might find a patient who has no insurance sitting next to a woman with the best PPO, across from a man with Medicare and next to a mother and child with Medi-Cal.
Currently, we deliver babies at Scripps Mercy Medical Center. There we enjoy a collegial and collaborative relationship with a group of obstetricians headed by Larry Flickinger, MD, and Karl Evelyn, MD, of the Mercy Clinic, who provide back-up to us. In the future we hope to also deliver at Palomar Medical Center in Escondido.
The care at the Pregnancy and Family Care Centers is truly holistic since along with the family medical care we also offer psychological counseling by Ann Marshall, PhD, and her team. Patients of all faiths who seek spiritual counseling can be seen by our group of spiritual counselors led by Deacon Kenneth Finn.
The Pregnancy and Family Care Centers also offer classes and follow-up in the Creighton Model Fertility Care system. The Creighton Model is a medical standardization of the Billings Ovulation Method of natural family planning. Devised by Thomas Hilgers, MD, of Creighton University Medical School, the Creighton Model not only provides a safe and very effective method of family planning, it also reveals biomarkers for physicians to follow in exploring and treating various problems of a woman’s reproductive system. The medical treatments that have grown out of this system are collectively known as “NaProTechnology.”
Both Dr. Jauregui and I are Creighton Model medical consultants. Working with us we have Pat Poindexter, RN, our director of Creighton Fertility Care Services and NaProTechnology, and Catherine Breen, who also teaches the model.
The Pregnancy and Family Care Centers recently acquired the Kensington Medical Group. After illustrious careers, Kensington’s two physicians, Harry Depew, MD, and Robert Bock, MD, are retiring in January 2006 and are pleased that their patients will still have a medical home with the Pregnancy and Family Care Centers.
Dr. Depew, of course, is no stranger to San Diego family physicians. He has been a vibrant member of the local academy and was the American Academy of Family Physicians’ Family Physician of the Year for 2000. He also has served as the CAFP president.
Our goal is for all of our patients to receive excellent healthcare in an uplifting, ennobling atmosphere. We seek to further the health of the community and the dignity of life one patient at a time.