Why 1stCallHEALTH?

I grew up in Lindsay, a small middle-class town in the central valley of California. Everything
revolved around agriculture. One of the main industries in town was ‘Lindsay Olives’. The sign
as you drove on Highway 65 said “Welcome to Lindsay. A Nice Town. A Great Olive.” Country
music played on the radio, everyone had a pickup truck, and I remember going for a bike ride
one afternoon at about 12 years old when my friends and I pulled two exhausted, frightened
dogs out of a canal. We wrapped them in our coats, carried them, and knocked on every door
until we found their owners. It was a community. We took care of each other.

My father was a doctor in town. The kind you don’t find anymore. He did everything for his
patients from cradle to grave. The wall of his office had pictures of him holding babies he had
delivered and, as the years passed, the babies of those babies. He took care of the whole
family. Pregnancy, school physicals, broken bones, appendectomies, infections, all the way to
grandma’s diabetes. My bedroom was near our driveway, and I would hear his car start up at all
hours of the night as he went to the hospital to take care of his patients. They needed him. He
knew them. They didn’t have to see a new doctor who was covering for the night. My father got
up and was there for them. They were in his care.

I followed in his footsteps and went to medical school. I joined the Navy to pay my tuition and
never expected to make it a career, but I stayed 22 years and had experiences and
opportunities that changed my life.

1stCallHEALTH is built out of what I learned from my father and the military. Service.
Relationships. Safe Keeping.

There are a lot of choices for primary care. Many of which use bots to communicate, have
corporate shareholders, are driven by private equity money, or are at the mercy of insurance
companies. With insurance prices rising and more folks priced out of anything but a High
Deductible Health Plan or no health plan at all, the choices seem to be shrinking.

Why 1stCallHEALTH? Because we are striving for something new in today’s environment that
really isn’t new, at all. It is how my father practiced medicine. Personal attention. Less money.
More time to listen. And a sense of community.

We would be honored to be your choice for primary care.
Much Appreciated,
Karen Leigh Matthews
Chief Executive Officer
1stCallHEALTH