Healthcare Reimagined

When you walk through the doors of Heller Healthcare, you feel like family. Stepping into Dr. Jennifer Heller’s office feels less like visiting a medical center and more like entering a friend’s home. And she’s just fine with that. No sliding glass window or sterile waiting room here; instead, the front desk staff will greet you by name and, better yet, the clinical staff will not only know how to care for you and your health, but also know all about you as an individual. “As silly as it may sound, we ask patients what kind of hot tea that they like on their consultation day, and then have it ready for them for their following visits. It’s a great way to get to know our patients and make that connection with them,” Heller said.

The office is open and inviting with a “living room” offering comfortable seating accented with plush pillows. A separate counter in the back of the waiting area is reserved for Jenny Sharpe, a Nurse Practitioner, and Kasey Miller, Physician Assistant, who head up the office’s medical side, providing a number of innovative and alternative treatments along with traditional medicine. There’s even an area for adult “time outs,” with tables for relaxing while waiting for treatments if you so choose.

Heller’s passion and commitment to go above and beyond for her patients is not only reflected by her staff, and a comfortable and relaxed atmosphere, but also by a new type of healthcare system. A reimagined healthcare system with fresh new options is exactly what Heller wanted and needed for her family and she decided to also make it available to the Golden Isles by opening the doors of Heller Healthcare in 2015. She explained, “I put programs and care options in place that I want for my family. I figure if I want this care for my family, I’m sure others would benefit from it as well.” Her reasoning was on point, because the practice has been thriving ever since.

The Heller Healthcare approach is different than the traditional medical standard. Heller and her incredible staff work together to provide patients with a well-rounded and coordinated care plans, bringing healthcare full circle. Imagine having a combined, centralized network of healthcare professionals for every stage of health management. From your sick care visits to new injuries or chronic pain, hormone or thyroid imbalances to weight loss and nutritional imbalances, Heller Healthcare’s integrative (continues)

INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE:

An approach to care that puts the patient at the center and addresses the full range of physical, emotional, mental, social, spiritual and environmental influences that affect a person’s health by utilizing a combination of practices and treatments from alternative medicine with conventional medicine.

approach to healthcare allows her team to work in unison and treat a patient as a whole, offering a variety of programs to comprehensively tackle health issues.

By shifting the traditional focus of medicine to a more patient-centered approach, Heller’s team addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Dr. Heller says, “It’s so great when a patient walks through the door that has suffered with chronic pain for so long to finally get relief in a very short time without jumping to medications and traditional injections, but utilizing a multidisciplinary approach of conservative care. Specifically for many of our pain patients, if we can get their joints moving through chiropractic care, their soft tissue more soft (muscles, tendons, facia), correct their structure as much as possible and then use our physical and occupational therapists to stabilize and strengthen the body, we see lasting results with not only pain relief, but improved balance, strength, mobility, and frankly, an improved quality of life and attitude!”

Heller Healthcare specializes in traditional, integrative, regenerative and functional medicine. They offer a wide range of care, all under one roof, that includes physical therapy, occupational therapy, stem cell therapy, bio-identical hormone optimization, physician guided weight loss, advanced diagnostic testing, chiropractic care, massage therapy, and neuromuscular therapy all in a combined approach. Dr. Heller explains, “So many people have tried chiropractic care or physical therapy and think to themselves, well that didn’t work or that it was just too painful to do. They think their body has failed them or that the medical system has failed them. But what would happen if a combination of treatments at just the right time was implemented? What would happen if multiple providers discussed that particular patient’s gains and struggles on a daily basis, treatment by treatment, and were able to tweak and change their approach in the moment based on how the patient is progressing that day? No more faxing and waiting for a follow up appointment in 2 weeks to find out if there’s something else that can be done. Find out that day, in that moment.” At Heller Healthcare, the treatment is focused on you as a person, not just your chronic sinus infection, bone on bone knee pain, or chronic fatigue and sleeping issues. They map out a custom care plan tailored to each patient. This approach allows them to use whatever treatment/discipline, or combination of treatments/disciplines, is best suited to each individual patient to achieve optimal results.

A comprehensive blood analysis that they call “The Compass” is utilized along with food allergy testing to get to the core of any inflammatory or disease process that is enhancing the patient’s symptoms. Heller notes, “Patients with physical stress (pain, balance issues, headaches, arthritis, difficulty losing weight) are commonly not tested for issues with their chemical stress. Hormone imbalances along with nutritional deficits or food intolerances will create a whole host of pain, swelling, and fatigue symptoms and will derail any good physical treatment plan from the beginning.”

The Heller team’s compassion is truly genuine. They understand that living in chronic pain or battling health issues is like living with a thief that steals away parts of your life. It can make it hard to do basically anything including work, sleep, and being with friends and family. They also understand that many times health goals can be challenging, intimidating, and hard to face on your own. Heller believes it’s all about a team approach and want patients to know they don’t have to face these hurdles alone. As

REGENERATIVE MEDICINE:

A branch of translational research in tissue engineering and molecular biology which deals with the “process of replacing, engineering or regenerating human cells, tissues or organs to restore or establish normal function.”

part of a team, patients will work with the support of staff to restore their overall health and well-being. “It’s our goal to help each patient get back to living their best life.” stated Heller. “Our team treats patients like they would their own family members and are diligent in forming lasting relationship with them.”

The first step in becoming a part of this healthcare system is setting up the free initial consultation. Once this exceptional exam is

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE:

Addressing the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership.

performed, the patient and providers of the office agree on a plan and goals are set. Not to worry, testing will be performed after a series of regular visits to ensure the best results possible. “Test, treat, communicate; test, treat, communicate; that’s our motto,” Heller said. Heller Healthcare offers all their modalities under one roof, which include their own urgent and sick care department, an in-house physical and occupational therapy department, and chiropractic care and massage. Heller’s medical side the offers functional medicine including physician guided weight loss, bioidentical hormone optimization, advanced diagnostic testing and regenerative medicine (stem cell therapy). “We do a lot of anti-inflammatory, anti-arthritis, and stem cell treatments for our patients who really want to correct their spine and reverse arthritis as much as possible. Down here, it’s so nice out, people want to be outside moving. They want to keep playing golf or tennis and we want to help them do that.” Heller said. “Stem cell therapy is used to help regenerate joints. If conservative and functional medicine is not enough and the joint is so degenerated that they need something more, we will stem cell it, adjust it and then rehab it,” she explained. When stem cells are injected into tissue or joints they support the natural healing process by regenerating that tissue and stimulating the body’s natural healing and anti-inflammatory processes. “Stem cell therapy is a great alternative to surgery,” stated Dr. Heller, “But most of all, it’s a “one-and-done” in-office procedure with no recovery time.” This fits right into the typical busy lifestyle that we all have.

Stem cell therapy can be used anywhere in the body where there is joint pain, arthritis, muscle or tendon damage. Heller Healthcare uses Human Umbilical Cord Tissue (HUCT) stem cells, which are derived from the consented, donated umbilical cords from healthy mothers who birthed healthy babies. The amount of stem cells from a newborn’s umbilical cord are a million times greater in quantity and thousands of times more potent than stem cells taken from an aged body. This also makes it a less-invasive treatment with fewer steps since your own stem cells are not harvested from your body. Decreasing the amount of processes causes HUCT stem cell therapy injections to be vastly more affordable. It is a quick, painless, outpatient procedure performed by the medical staff of Heller Healthcare’s office. The stem cells are injected into the patient’s problem area(s) and within 28 hours those cells will have attached to the inflamed and degenerated tissue, doubled, and already started the process of regenerative medicine. This doubling process of every 28 hours continues for three months to change and regenerate the joints, arthritis, and tissue until new, healthy tissue has formed and replaced the old, degenerated tissue. After the stem cells have been injected, the amount of chiropractic, massage, and/or rehabilitative treatments needed to assist change and enhancement of the results varies by a patient’s needs and goals to achieve optimal results.

To become a new patient or find out if an integrative approach for your healthcare needs is right for you, a free consultation with one of the providers may be made by phone by calling 912.264.2244. Insurance or cash patients are all welcomed. Heller Healthcare works with most insurance providers, as well as Medicare, which often covers a portion of the costs, even different massage techniques. For more information, visit HellerHealthcare.com.

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