Chesterfield Physician Named Top Doc

This week, Chesterfield Patch introduces you to Dr. Thomas Hastings, recently named to Best Doctors in America by his peers and colleagues. He's committed to delivering health care in an appropriate and considerate manner.

The current challenges facing physicians are numerous. Doctors are looking at current medical trends as they prepare for new health issues and an aging population. Dr. Thomas Hastings is meeting the challenges head on, and patient education is at the top of his list.

“More people are empowered to understand chronic disease than ever before,” Hastings said. "The more they understand, the more they can keep up.”

Hastings, an adult family doctor practicing general and internal medicine, settled in Chesterfield in 1992. He graduated from University of Missouri, Kansas City School of Medicine and completed his residency at University of Kansas Medical Center. After practicing in Mexico, MO, Hastings and his wife—who was born in the St. Louis area—relocated to Chesterfield.

When Hastings was recently named to Best Doctors in America, it validated his mission to improve health care through patient education, health maintenance and changing the way medical offices run to better serve and inform patients. In a different field it would be called better customer service.

“All of us have to recognize how we think regarding how we deliver health care," Hastings said. “I need to be a more effective educator."

Best Doctors—founded in 1989 by two Harvard Medical School physicians—provides a means to identify and gain access to the most respected doctors and dependable, high-quality medical information and care available. A doctor must be nominated and evaluated by other current Best Doctors. Approximately 5 percent of doctors in the United States are selected.

“It's an honor and flattering,” Hastings said. “I take it with humility. I'm the same doctor I was. I try to be the best doctor I can be and to do the best for my patients. You're humbled every day in that endeavor.”

Hastings is no stranger to recognition. In 2009, he was named a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, an honorary designation given to recognize ongoing individual service and contributions to the practice of medicine.

In addition to running his own practice, Hastings is also part of Esse Health, a St. Louis-based physician group that strives to improve the overall well-being of its patients through patient education, lifestyle modification and prevention. Eighteen other Esse Health physicians were also named Best Doctors in America.

Esse Health and Hastings' medical sensibilities are a perfect match: Both believe patients should take an active role in their health care and that prevention is the best medicine. Hastings said healthy living is vitally important.

“There's a trend toward obesity,” Hastings said. “Living a healthy lifestyle is more challenging for patients than it used to be. Demographics have changed. People are older and suffering from unhealthy lifestyles, and we're trying to encourage them to eat healthy. There's a gap the size of the Grand Canyon between knowing what to do and doing it.”

What does Hastings see as the largest contributors to unhealthy lifestyles? “Soda is a big offender,” Hastings said. “Eliminate tobacco use. Put a skull and crossbones on fast food. If we could eliminate these things it would solve a lot of problems.”

Hastings points the U.S. Department of Agriculture website Choose My Plate, and their recommendation to eat five helpings of fruit and veggies per day, as a guide on how to eat healthy.

In the future, Hastings sees the availability of health care as a challenge, and meeting the challenge requires patients committing to healthier lifestyles and changing the way doctor's practices are run.

“Health care has everyone wringing their hands, but health care will be fine,” Hastings said. “We'll do more on the phone and Internet. Your doctor is not someone to see just whenever you're sick, but as an overall mentor to maintaining good health.”

By changing the dynamic between doctors and patients, Hastings thinks that health care delivery will change not only the way people live, but the way they go to see their doctor. He believes that doctors who cram as many patient visits into a day as they can won't survive.

“I want my patients to know I'm available, and when they're here I have as much time as they need, so they don't keep having to come back,” Hastings said. “That will increase efficiency in the long run. Then when they do have something important, I'll have the time for them.”

In his typically humble way, Hastings shares the credit for being named a top doc. “I have to compliment my staff. They're great at answering patients questions and everything else they do. They say I'm a best doctor in America? Well, I have the best doctor's staff in America.”