Our Practice

When Dr. Frank Schmid established his medical practice in a small, unassuming Saranac storefront some 30 years ago, he did it on the simple premise of providing the people of that rural community with the most current, high quality medical care possible. He likely did not imagine how that practice might look today. Located just down the street from that original site, that practice (now Edmondson Rouse Schmid Family Medicine) has grown to a team of five providers (three doctors, two family nurse practitioners), a full-complement of staff (technicians, nurses, medical assistants, and office personnel) who together care for thousands of patients and families. Over time, the "community" our practice serves has expanded to include all of Ionia County and even many towns outside Ionia County. This growth has come not from savvy marketing strategies but as a result of a highly-qualified, committed, and caring group of caregivers who have "stayed put" in a community whose people we have grown to love.

Our Philosophy

Ours is certainly a medical practice. In this world of rapid change, we are always practicing and perfecting, always looking to improve, to find better ways. To this end, we are strongly committed to the importance of ongoing learning and connectedness to the robust medical community that is ours in West Michigan. And it is why, as clinical faculty of Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, we are committed to teaching, offering up our busy office as a great place for medical students to get out of the classroom and hospital to see family practice in practice.

The most efficient and best health care results when the individual players (doctors, nurse practitioners, schedulers, medical assistants, technicians, etc.) work as a team to help patients get better and stay well. Of course, the main "player" in this important collaboration is the patient. We encourage our patients to actively participate in their health care, not to just leave it up to others. Health and well-being is not a spectator sport. We all need to be on the field, fighting together for long, healthy, happy, purposeful, energetic lives.

We promote wellness. More than just the "absence of disease," wellness (in its holistic sense) comes when all is right... not just physically, but also in our lifestyles, our marriages and families, our finances, our spiritual lives, our jobs and careers, our relationships. Of course we want our patients to live long, but we want them to live long and well. Quantity and quality. To this end, we encourage routine wellness visits to screen for hidden problems that can be real problems down the road if not treated. Prevention is so much easier than cure.

Our Goal

In these days of rising costs and spending, Family Practice makes sense. It is simply the most sensible and cost-effective model of health care delivery. With a broad-base of medical training, family practitioners can diagnose and treat a great majority of medical problems. We act as medical services coordinators: organizing referrals and directing patients to appropriate specialists. And we serve as liaisons between our patients, their families, and all those who provide input into their care.

Family Practice is, very simply, a good place to call home... medical home. It's one central place where all of a patient's health information resides. It is our goal to be medical home for those who trust their health care to us.

Our Team

"Great challenges require great teamwork." - John Maxwell

If great challenges do, in fact, require great teamwork, then our practice is up to the awesome challenge that has been given us to tend to your family's health and wellness. Each member of our staff brings their own combination of experience, training, and skills to the practice. The role each of us plays, then, in delivering an excellent medical practice product to our patients is unique and compliments the rest of the team. An appointment for a simple medical issue is kept simple for our patients because of the behind-the-scenes efficiency of teamwork that patients generally do not care to see. They simply want to get well.

Our Facility

We are located in the heart of Saranac, halfway between Ionia and Lowell, just south of M-21. We offer a full compliment of on-site diagnostics (blood tests, x-ray, EKG, pulmonary function tests, bone density testing, skin lesion biopsy, etc.) and treatments (fracture care, immunizations, laceration repair, minor skin/soft tissue surgery, skin lesion cryo-destruction, breathing treatments, osteopathic manipulative therapy, etc.).

Our Plans

We are thankful for the faith the Ionia community has placed in us. But the resulting growth of our medical practice has brought growing pains. To accommodate our growth, a plan for a significant expansion of our existing office space has been drawn up. We anticipate construction to begin this Fall.

Our Policies

The very commitment to excellence that we value so much necessitates that we maintain certain policies and procedures which ensure that our patients can expect a certain level of professionalism, consistency, and privacy in their relationship with our office. There are, of course, many regulatory, legal, and insurance company requirements of medical care that also factor in to these policies. The result is that our patients can feel very confident in the quality and professionalism of those in whom they entrust their very lives.