I'm Rafael F. Garcia, MD, and this is a solo practice — I see every patient myself. You'll also meet my wife, Heather Garcia, LVN, who runs the front office, and occasionally other staff who help things along.
I spent twenty-five years as a board-certified emergency physician, treating people who were seriously sick or badly hurt. I'm still boarded in emergency medicine, now through NBPAS, and I keep that certification current — though I don't plan to go back to ER work. For the past six years I've practiced primary care, including time alongside local family physicians, and that's taught me the slower work an emergency department isn't built for: follow-up, prevention, careful medication changes over time, and the small details that actually change how someone does long-term.
On the paperwork, Medicare lists me as a "general practitioner" — that's an administrative label used when a physician provides primary care without having completed a family medicine or internal medicine residency; mine was in emergency medicine. The role I actually fill is your primary care physician: the doctor you see first for checkups, chronic conditions, everyday illness, and coordinating specialist care when it's needed. I also have significant experience with conditions like ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder and anxiety, alongside the usual hypertension, diabetes and high cholesterol.
I keep this a solo practice on purpose. You see the same physician every time, not a rotating cast of mid-level providers, and you shouldn't have to re-explain your history at every visit. Over time I get to learn what we've already tried, what worried you last time, which medication didn't sit right, and how your life actually affects your health. Large clinics can do this well too — plenty do — but the pattern I wanted to avoid is a different face every visit with no room for an actual working relationship to build. I won't claim to be the best clinician in town. What I can offer is continuity: I get to know you as a person, not a slot on a schedule.
My focus in primary care is to recognize metabolic problems before they become emergencies. I pay attention to the connected pattern of visceral fat, insulin resistance, diabetes, blood pressure, and cholesterol, including the metabolic changes that can come with midlife and menopause. My approach combines nutrition, resistance training, sleep, weight management, and medications when appropriate, while protecting muscle and reducing long-term cardiovascular risk. My emergency-medicine experience taught me what these conditions can become, and I want to use that perspective earlier — while there is still time to change the course.
If you ever have questions about my training or how the Medicare listing works, ask me in person — I'm glad to walk through it.