Dr. David Lipschitz, the well-known geriatrician, is now in private practice.
Arkansas Business reported in February that Lipschitz was leaving the Longevity Center at St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center and planned to join Baptist Health.
But the deal with Baptist, which seemed tentative even at the time, fizzled before it got off the ground. Lipschitz said he didn’t want to go into what happened, and a Baptist Health spokesman declined to comment.
So Lipschitz, at the age of 69, decided to start his own clinic: the Dr. David Health Clinic.
“I’m really excited about the future, and everything might turn out to be a blessing,” he said.
He’s renting space from the Advanced Physical Ther-apy Center in Little Rock and is working part time until July. Even though he didn’t broadcast the news of his new clinic, patients found him and he’s booked. Dr. David will go to full-time status in July, after he returns from some trips he had scheduled.
He said his practice would focus on prevention and “promoting health and preventing diseases, which is my No. 1 priority.”
Plans for the clinic include hiring a physician’s assistant and, down the road, partnering with other doctors, he said.
Lipschitz said he never thought about retiring after the Baptist deal didn’t pan out. “I haven’t reached my prime,” he said. “I have never felt better. … I’m not ready to stop anything. I’m ready to start.”
He said the process of starting a practice has opened his eyes.
“It can take months to get approval from Medicare to bill,” he said. And getting the licenses and medical malpractice insurance also is no stroll in the park.
“That’s part of the life of deciding to branch out and open your own shingle,” he said. “It’s a completely different aspect of health care that has broadened my vision.”
Before joining St. Vincent in 2008, Lipschitz was chairman of the Donald W. Reynolds Department of Geriatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and director of the Reynolds Institute on Aging.