Pinsk Family Practice

PINSK FAMILY PRACTICE

YOUR FAMILY’S MEDICAL HOME

Preventative Medicine is important. But who will you trust when you get sick?

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

DR. JEFFREY H. PINSK, MD

I have been enjoying taking care of patients and their families since 1987. My approach is to treat each patient as an individual and as a whole, not just an illness or a condition. I take a personal interest in each and every patient and will be there for you when you are ill or when you need a well patient check-up. Most recently, I have expanded my practice to include treating patients, who have qualified conditions, with medical marijuana with amazing, life-changing results.

PHYSICIAN

Your Medical Home

PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT

BRIAN HANCOX, PA-C

I joined Pinsk Family Practice in 2017 and am proud to be part of the team. I enjoy taking care of many different types of patients with many different kinds of illnesses. Dr. Pinsk and I work as a team to evaluate, diagnose, and treat both common and complex medical problems. I value the personal relationships with our patients that are created in this small office environment.

Phone: (610) 353-6600

Monday-Friday: 8:30AM to 4PM Tuesday: 8:30AM to 8PM

Request an Appointment

Email: office@pinskfamilypractice.com

Pinsk Family Practice

Office Hours

3475 West Chester Pike (at Bryn Mawr Avenue) Suite 120 Newtown Square, PA 19073

APPOINTMENTS

Mental Health

Coordination of Care

Skilled Diagnostician

Fibromyalgia & TMJ

Preventative Care

Medical Marijuana

EXPERTISE

My approach is to treat each patient as an individual and as a whole, not just an illness or a condition. I take a personal interest in each and every patient and will be there for you when you are ill or when you need a well patient check-up. Most recently, I have expanded my practice to include treating patients, who have qualified conditions, with medical marijuana with amazing, life-changing results.

DR. JEFFERY H. PINSK, MD

Explore our teams specialities to discover a solution that fits your needs.

YOUR FAMILY’S MEDICAL HOME

Preventative Medicine is important. But who will you trust when you get sick?

Meet My Staff

DR. GERARD MILLER, MD

Request An Appointment

NEED HELP?

Monday-Friday: 8:30AM to 4PM Tuesdays: 8:30AM to 8PM

Fibromyalgia & TMJ

Dr. Jeffrey Pinsk, MD

Mental Health

Medical Marijuana

ABOUT

Coordination of Care

Office Location

Brian Hancox, PA-C

Preventative Care

LOCATION

Pinsk Family Practice 3475 West Chester Pike (at Bryn Mawr Avenue) Suite 120 Newtown Square, PA 19073 Phone: (610) 353-6600 Email: office@pinskfamilypractice.com Office Hours Monday-Friday: 8:30AM to 4PM Tuesday: 8:30AM to 8PM

We want our medical home to be your medical home because going to the doctor can be unnerving, especially when you are sick and not at your best. That is why we strive to make you feel welcome, comfortable, and secure at our office. We take care of you by scheduling prompt appointments, often on the same day. We take the time to listen and examine you, and make sure that you understand your diagnosis and treatment plan. We will help you schedule diagnostic studies, and then, we will call you with the results of your tests. When necessary, we will refer you to the best specialists in the area and consult with them. Our philosophy is simple: We treat you as we would want to be treated. Many times, our friends and family become our patients, and our patients become our friends and extended family. Led by Dr. Jeffrey Pinsk, M.D., with over 30 years of experience in providing patient care, the team at Pinsk Family Practice offers a full range of healthcare services. For urgent care, you can expect same day appointments, and for sick care, we’ll see you within 24 hours. Our staff is on call 24x7x365 and we follow our patients into the hospital to ensure you receive consistent and comprehensive medical care.

YOUR MEDICAL HOME

OFFICE LOCATION

Same day appointments for urgent care 24 hour appointments for sick care On-call care by our staff 24x7

REQUEST AN APPOINTMENT

CONTACT INFORMATION

SKILLED DIAGNOSTICIAN

ADDITIONAL SPECIALITIES

Dr. Pinsk is a university-trained Internist. An Internist is a family doctor for adults and young adults from 12-years-old to 100+. He is trained to take care of sick and complicated patients. For over 30 years, Dr. Pinsk has been caring for patients with multiple medical problems, both in the hospital and in the office. Although he has not attended to patients in the hospital for the past 3 years, his experience from making hospital rounds in the ICU, CCU, ER, and the medical-surgical units has been invaluable. Furthermore, he has maintained close professional relationships with the specialists who work at the hospital. Patients do not come to the doctor with a diagnosis. It is the physician’s role to figure out the cause of the symptoms, i.e., the diagnosis. Many doctors simply treat the patient’s symptoms without correctly identifying the underlying cause. Many times, symptoms are not what they appear to be. Dr. Pinsk will correctly identify the underlying diagnosis causing your symptoms so that he can create a treatment plan for you. Dr. Pinsk takes a holistic approach to practicing medicine. His philosophy is that he treats people, not diseases. Unfortunately, in today’s world of medicine, doctors tend to focus on the disease instead of the patient. Dr. Pinsk takes the time to take a good history to understand the patient’s symptoms, as well as to understand the person who is having those symptoms. Both are essential to making the correct diagnosis. If you are given the wrong diagnosis, you will get the wrong treatment. This is where Dr. Pinsk and his staff are at their best. Patients come to the office with symptoms. Dr. Pinsk expertly makes the diagnosis, confirmed by laboratory tests and radiologic studies if necessary. He then recommends a course of treatment, or he refers to specialists to perform further testing and treatment.

COORDINATION OF CARE

Most of the time, Dr. Pinsk can diagnose and treat your medical condition without referring you to a specialist. Of course, if you would like to see a specialist as well, he can recommend one. Sometimes, a procedure needs to be performed such as a colonoscopy, heart catheterization, or hip replacement. Dr. Pinsk is independent—he is not employed by any hospital or system. Therefore, he recommends the best specialists in the area, no matter what hospital or system that they are affiliated with. Furthermore, he refers to individual physicians that are experts in their field based on patient feedback over many years. Dr. Pinsk refers patients to specialists that he would send his own family to. You can be assured that the care you get will be top notch. Some patients have multiple medical problems that require multiple specialist physicians. Specialists tend to focus on their area of expertise. Dr. Pinsk is at the center of your care. He is the “captain” who the other doctors report to. Dr. Pinsk analyzes the big picture and considers how your diagnoses and medications interact. He treats the whole patient, not just the disease. You will be guided through the complicated and occasionally frustrating process of obtaining the treatment that you need. Dr. Pinsk takes this responsibility seriously, as if he was performing the procedure or administering the treatment himself.

Preventative care is important. It is one of the major factors for the increase in life expectancy. In the past, people did not go to the doctor unless they were sick. Consequently, they did not know that they had hypertension, diabetes, or high cholesterol until they were in the emergency room with their first heart attack! Contrary to popular belief, most people can not feel when their blood pressure, blood sugar, or their cholesterol is high. A “well visit” is designed to catch medical conditions in their early stages. This minimizes the risk that there will be complications in the long term such as heart attacks, strokes, and cancer. We recommend an annual physical for everyone starting at 50, or sooner if there is a history of a serious or chronic disease that runs in your immediate family. If you are in your 30’s or 40’s and feel well, we recommend a physical or “well visit” every other year. During the “check-up,” we will ask you questions, do an examination, and draw blood. We will recommend age appropriate cancer screenings and talk about your lifestyle—diet, exercise, and smoking. It is also an opportunity for you to ask about health issues that you are concerned about but would not have made a separate appointment to discuss. For those patients who are younger than 30, most of you need a “well visit” once every three years. However, if a serious or chronic condition runs in the family, you may need to be seen more often. The older we get, the more quickly our bodies change, and genetic factors play a more important role.

PREVENTATIVE CARE

FIBROMYALGIA & TMJ

Do you have body aches that you don’t understand? Have you been to a doctor who tested you for inflammatory arthritis and told you that the tests were negative? You may have Fibromyalgia. When you sleep at night, you clench your body—often in the fetal position. Imagine how sore my hand would be if I clenched my fist all night. Now think about how sore your shoulders, chest, and legs would be if you were clenched in the fetal position all night. That is Fibromyalgia. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a disease. Fibromyalgia is almost always caused by anxiety, depression, or PTSD. When sleeping, patients with Fibromyalgia process their emotional pain which causes them to clench their bodies—night after night after night. The result is that they have chronic muscle pain, not joint pain or arthritis. The treatment is NOT simply pain medication or Lyrica. When Fibromyalgia is correctly diagnosed, the next step is to identify the underlying emotional problem causing the sleep disorder. This is another area of expertise in which Dr. Pinsk excels. Do you have chronic headaches? Have you been told that you have chronic migraines or chronic sinusitis that has not responded to treatment? You may have TMJ Syndrome. People with TMJ Syndrome clench their jaws and grind their teeth at night when they sleep. They are unaware that they are doing this because they are asleep! When patients clench, the jaw muscles, facial muscles, and the neck muscles are all involved. This results in a headache the next day. Some patients clench their jaw intermittently, frequently when they are under stress. Others clench every night. In most cases, it is inherited. Ask your parents or siblings if they have chronic headaches or if they have been told that they grind their teeth. The dentist is usually the last to know because it takes years of grinding before it is visible. If you have chronic headaches, come see us. We can help.

Patients who suffer from anxiety, depression, and substance abuse often seek help from their primary care physician first. Some physicians prescribe medication for the symptoms without taking the time to understand where the symptoms are coming from. This is appropriate if the anxiety or depression is situational—stress at work, at home, or with your health. However, many patients are anxious or depressed without a logical reason. Dr. Pinsk has a unique expertise in diagnosing the root cause of your non-situational anxiety and depression. Many people have underlying ADD or PTSD that is causing their current symptoms. These patients do not recognize that their emotional traumas of the past are still playing a role in their mental health today. When you see Dr. Pinsk for your anxiety or depression, he will take the time to explore the possible reasons for your emotional pain. He may prescribe medication and recommend a psychotherapist. By the end of your visit, you will have a better understanding of the cause of your anxiety or depression. Dr. Pinsk has a special interest and expertise in mental health problems. He considers a patient’s psychological well-being as important as their physical well-being. Emotional pain can impair one’s quality of life even more than physical pain. If you are suffering from anxiety or depression, we want you to tell us so that we can help you. Learn more about his new book called “Anxiety? Depression? Hint: You Might Have Undiagnosed ADD or PTSD.” Learn More.

MENTAL HEALTH

NOW AVAILABLE

View on Amazon

View on iBooks

Medical marijuana officially became legal in Pennsylvania on April 6, 2016. On February 15, 2018 medical marijuana became available for patients at dispensaries across the commonwealth. Dr. Pinsk has been one of the program’s early advocates and is certified by the PA Department of Health as an Approved Practitioner of Medical Marijuana. Dr. Pinsk’s practice strictly abides by the PA laws and process detailed on the website www.health.pa.gov. The PA Medical Marijuana Program provides access to medical marijuana for patients with a serious medical condition through a safe and effective method of delivery that balances patient need for access to the latest treatments with patient care and safety. Conditions that qualify include: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosisAnxiety DisordersAutismCancer, including remission therapyCrohn’s diseaseDamage to the nervous tissue of the central nervous system (brain-spinal cord) with objective neurological indication of intractable spasticity, and other associated neuropathiesDyskinetic and spastic movement disordersEpilepsyGlaucomaHIV / AIDSHuntington’s diseaseInflammatory bowel diseaseIntractable seizuresMultiple sclerosisNeurodegenerative diseasesNeuropathiesOpioid use disorder for which conventional therapeutic interventions are contraindicated or ineffective, or for which adjunctive therapy is indicated in combination with primary therapeutic interventionsParkinson’s diseasePost-traumatic stress disorderSevere chronic or intractable pain of neuropathic origin or severe chronic or intractable painSickle cell anemiaTerminal illnessTourette's Syndrome OBTAINING YOUR MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARD The process for obtaining your first Medical Marijuana card requires registering with the state of PA and two doctor visits for certification. The first step in getting medical marijuana in Pennsylvania is getting registered. To register for the medical marijuana program, you must first create a profile in the Medical Marijuana Registry.Next, make an appointment to see Dr. Pinsk to establish a patient-physician relationship as required by the state of Pennsylvania. If you are already a patient in the practice, make an appointment to discuss your need to be treated with medical marijuana. The cost of this visit is covered by most insurances. Please call our office to see if we accept your insurance. During the appointment, you will learn if you have one of the qualifying medical conditions listed in order to obtain medical marijuana.A second visit is required by the state in order to be certified by Dr. Pinsk. He will explain about the different types of medical marijuana and how to use them. After the visit, he will submit your certification directly to the Medical Marijuana Registry. The cost of this visit is $200 and is NOT covered by insurance.Once you have been certified by Dr. Pinsk, return to the Medical Marijuana Registry and order your medical marijuana ID card. For subsequent annual renewals, you will receive an email 30 days before the expiration date of your Patient Certification and ID Card. You must renew the registration prior to obtaining a new certification from the practitioner. The cost for recertification is $100 if Dr. Pinsk performed the initial certification.

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

3475 West Chester Pike (at Bryn Mawr Avenue) Suite 120 Newtown Square, PA 19073

SKILLED DIAGNOSTICIAN

COORDINATION OF CARE

PREVENTATIVE CARE

FIBROMYALGIA & TMJ

MENTAL HEALTH

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Dr. Jeffrey Pinsk, MD

Brian Hancox, PA-C

Office Location

COORDINATION OF CARE

PREVENTATIVE CARE

FIBROMYALGIA & TMJ

MEDICAL MARIJUANA

Click here to learn more.

My new book is out now!

Hint: You May Have Undiagnosed ADD or PTSD.

ANXIETY? DEPRESSION?

I have been a physician for over thirty years, and a student of human nature for my entire life. From my earliest days in medicine, many patients seeking help for anxiety, depression, or substance abuse have shared their stories with me, often helping to reveal the root cause of their condition. I have felt compelled to share these stories with colleagues, anonymously, because they were too fascinating to keep to myself! Now, I hope to share some of these stories with you. Over the course of my many years in family practice, I have come to recognize patterns of behavior in my patients that have not been adequately described or explained in medical textbooks, journals, or lectures. Conditions such as anxiety, depression, alcoholism, and substance abuse, are misunderstood by medical and mental health professionals. In the majority of patients, these are symptoms of an underlying condition, not the root cause of their illness. Frequently, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD) is the underlying cause of the anxiety, depression, and addiction. Since many professionals are treating the symptoms of anxiety and depression instead of the PTSD or ADD that is causing those symptoms, it should be no surprise that so many people are not getting better. By recognizing and embracing the root causes of anxiety and depression, I have put into practice the principles and the treatment of what I have learned over the course of my career with amazing and life changing results for many of my patients. Situational anxiety and depression occur in everyone at some point in their lives. I call this ‘normal’. Our mood is altered by life’s challenges—a death in the family, the breakup of a relationship, the loss of a job, financial difficulties, being a teenager, or being the parent of a teenager! Many people need medication and psychotherapy to help them cope with the anxious and depressed mood that comes with these challenges. Furthermore, some anxiety and depression are hereditary. There is a chemical imbalance in the brain that runs in the family and is in their DNA. The neurotransmitters serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, and others are over-or underproduced by the neurons in the brain, creating chronic anxiety and depression without an obvious situational or underlying cause. I have written this book for the majority of people who are anxious and depressed but do not have either situational or hereditary anxiety or depression. It is my assertion that you may have underlying and undiagnosed PTSD or ADD. Your response may be, “How could I have PTSD or ADD? I have a responsible job, a spouse, children, and a mortgage.” My answer is that although you’re successful, you are still troubled by your past emotional traumas. You think that they’re in the past and resolved. However, your symptoms of anxiety and depression tell me that these are not scars—they are unresolved, open wounds. You revisit them many days and most nights when you obsess about the past and worry about the future. This worrying is toxic and only known to you, not to others around you. Childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood are where major emotional traumas most often occur. Today’s emotional distress follows a well-worn pattern of anxiety and depression that has been present for years or perhaps decades. To understand your emotions today, we need to first examine your childhood, at your very first visit. This is a radical concept and would be considered heresy in the mental health community today. However, the current approach to mental health is working poorly. Studies tell us that almost seven million adults in our country have chronic Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Another six million adults have Panic Disorder, and sixteen million have Major Depressive Disorder, including three million depressed patients who have chronic, persistent depression. We need a new and fundamentally different approach to psychiatry and psychotherapy. You can find my new book on:

ANXIETY? DEPRESSION?

Hint: You May Have Undiagnosed ADD or PTSD

NOW AVAILABLE