Meet the "highly skilled doctors" at 45 Urgent Care

Are you looking to receive urgent medical care from a cabal of "highly trained doctors" where only one of the doctors is an actual physician? Are you looking to get some hormone replacement therapy while you get your laceration repaired? Do you live in Tennessee? Well, you're in luck! Thanks to a blazing-hot tip we received, our latest installment in the Noctor category features an urgent care clinic in Jackson, Tennessee called 45 Urgent Care, which offers urgent care as well as uh, other services.

Based on its location, we surmise that the "45" is a reference to US Route 45, and not the political views of its medical director, Mark W. Fowler, MD, JD, who is a former attorney and board-certified in both family medicine and being a right-wing nutcase boomer. As evidenced by his blog, he appears to hate electric cars and describes India and China as countries who will "inevitably desire the accommodations of the first world, meaning phones, indoor plumbing, computers, heating, cooling, and television." Damn, who knew that India and China don't have phones, computers, television, or indoor plumbing yet?

Questionable political views aside, at least Dr. Fowler can legitimately claim to be a physician. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of the other "highly skilled doctors" that 45 Urgent Care advertises so enthusiastically on its website:

One would think that a medical director, especially a physician who previously worked as an attorney, would take extra care to ensure that their practice's website and advertising materials were accurate, informative, and most importantly, not misleading to patients in any way. Indeed, one could make the argument that after seeing this webpage, any reasonable patient would be led to believe that the "doctors" at 45 Urgent Care are physicians, which is most certainly not the case. Guess how many of the three doctors listed are real fucking physicians? Yep, you guessed it - only Dr. Mark Fowler. Lisa Medlin is a nurse practitioner (with a DNP), while Bianca Simmons is a Doctor of Physical Therapy. Look, we love our physical therapists, but advertising a DPT as a "Doctor" to patients in this context without obvious clarification is just straight-up fucked.

While it's technically possible to click on each person's photo to view a text profile describing their educational background and credentials, this is definitely not an ethical or honest way to present your staff to prospective patients.

On a side note, who exactly is "Joshua"? 😂

And if you have any remaining doubt about 45 Urgent Care's marketing of their "highly skilled doctors" and their intended (mis)use of the word "Doctor", look no further than this recent September 22, 2023 ad on their Facebook page:

At first glance, when we looked at what our tipster had sent us on a phone screen, it wasn't even obvious that something was amiss with this "highly skilled doctor". But after downloading a high-resolution copy, squinting really hard, and yelling "enhance" several times:

...we can finally make it out.

Needless to say, this is probably not the "highly skilled doctor" you were hoping to see.

Finally, it's from a legal perspective that the aforementioned marketing practices by 45 Urgent Care are most questionable. Tennessee Code 63-1-109 – "Display of license or certificate of registration – Terminology used in signs and written material" - specifically states the following:

(a) Every person licensed or registered to practice one of the healing arts, or any branch thereof, as delineated in this section shall keep an original or copy of the person’s license or certificate of registration displayed in the office or place in which the person practices, in a conspicuous place, and shall place and keep placed in a conspicuous place at the entrance of the person’s office, a sign in intelligible lettering and not less than one inch (1″) in height, containing the name of such person immediately followed by the recognized abbreviation indicating the professional degree, if any, held by such person, and containing immediately below the person’s name, in equal size lettering, the word or words:

(k) A healthcare practitioner, who provides information regarding healthcare services on an internet website that is directly controlled or administered by the healthcare practitioner or the practitioner’s agent, shall prominently display on the internet website the practitioner’s full name and type of license using one (1) or more of the words listed in subsection (a).

Indeed, 45 Urgent Care's Facebook advertisement of Lisa Medlin calls her "Dr." but completely fails to disclose the recognized abbreviation indicating her professional degree, i.e. "DNP". A similar argument could be made against the way in which 45 Urgent Care lists its "doctors" without degree suffixes on its own website as pictured above - having to individually click on each "doctor" and decipher a lengthy wall of text to figure out what degree he/she has and whether or not he/she is actually a physician certainly goes against the spirit of "prominent display".

The Tennessee Department of Health might be very interested in 45 Urgent Care's marketing and advertising shenanigans; information on filing complaints against health care professionals can be found on their website:
https://www.tn.gov/health/health-program-areas/health-professional-boards/report-a-concern.html

In addition, the Tennessee Attorney General's Division of Consumer Affairs takes an interest in fraudulent, deceptive, or dangerous practices in trade or commerce, and naturally, we are of the opinion that 45 Urgent Care's aforementioned practices fall under that category. Their complaint form can be found here:
https://agtnprod.powerappsportals.us/DCA/