About Family Care

Mission Statement:

To provide our patients with exceptional primary care from well qualified professionals, who work together as a team to bring you the highest quality medical care in a warm, caring setting.

History of Our Primary Care in Durham, NC:

Family Care, PA has been providing high quality primary care in Durham, North Carolina since 1992. Originally, our first small office was located next to a hardware store on Highway 55 in Durham. As the practice grew, Family Care moved into a larger space in Meridian Business Complex in 1996. With the addition of Dr. Elaina Lee to the practice in 2004, we began developing plans for a larger, stand-alone building that was comfortable and convenient for our existing patients.

With an interest in Victorian-style architecture, Dr. Mentock searched for several years for a old Victorian home she could renovate and make into the Family Care office. After she decided that no perfect renovation options were available, plans were developed in 2006 to build the existing office building we love today. We started seeing patients at our current location in 2007 and have greatly enjoyed being a part of the Penrith and Carpenter Fletcher communities nearby.

What Makes Us Different?

We get to know you personally. Our medical staff and providers take the time to get to know you during your visit, rather than rushing you through your appointment. You will never feel rushed during your visit and will have the opportunity to fully explain your symptoms and concerns. Our administrative staff also takes the time to get to know our patients and works with them to overcome common healthcare hurdles like coordinating specialist referrals, obtaining prior authorizations, requesting medical records, and appealing claim denials.

We are great patient advocates. At Family Care, being the best advocates possible for our patients is always our priority. When coordinating care, we always try to work within the structure of your insurance coverage to make sure the process is smooth and you are able to receive the full extent of your plan’s benefits. Our office policies regarding scheduling appointments, payments, and paperwork are all designed to provide the most efficient and affordable care possible.

We utilize available technology. Our office is able to provide efficient care by taking advantage of the wealth of technology available in healthcare today. We use an Electronic Medical Records system to manage our practice, which features an online patient portal. The portal provides 24-hour per day access to their own medical records at our office, including appointment reminders, prescription directions, and historical lab results.

We schedule 30 minute appointments. Unlike most primary care offices, we schedule each of our visits in 30 minute blocks of time. This does not always mean your visit will actually take a full 30 minutes, but the extra allowance does help make sure you are seen on time for your appointments and still have plenty of room to explain the full nature of your visit and concerns to your provider.

We are up front about our policies. We try to make the processes for how we provide efficient medical care as open and transparent as possible so our patients can understand the reasons behind them and why they are necessary, and beneficial, for our patients. We do our best to help patients understand their insurance policies and are always open about expectations, likely possibilities, and potential problems with obtaining coverage in certain situations.

We are able to be contacted easily. If there is anything else you need to know, just call our office at 919-544-6461. Family Care does not use a “phone tree” or automated operating system, so a real employee at our real office will pick up the phone when you have a question. If we aren’t able to answer the call, it is simply because we are at lunch (12pm – 1pm), or are helping another one of our patients in the office. If you leave a message, we will call you back shortly. Or, you can also contact us by…

  • Completing this online contact form.
  • Emailing our office at contact@familycarepa.com.
  • Signing up for our patient portal and submitting a message directly to your provider through our EMR system.
  • Flying a drone to GPS coordinates “Latitude: 35.915967, Longitude: -78.894075” with your hand-written message. Please print.
    • Note: Mention this option at your next visit and Ryan will give you a piece of candy.

We are grateful for the opportunity to take part in your medical care. We understand that you have plenty of options for primary care in Durham. We try to help in every way possible and hope you truly enjoy visiting our office. Thank you for giving us a chance to provide you with great medical care!