If you’ve been without a primary care provider — or are switching from a practice that never quite felt right — your first appointment can feel like a lot of unknowns. What will they ask? How long will it take? Will they actually listen?
At The Batson Clinic in Little Rock, we’ve designed the new patient experience to be thorough, unhurried, and genuinely personal. Here’s what you can expect from start to finish.
Before You Arrive
We’ll ask you to complete your new patient intake paperwork in advance when possible. This includes your medical history, current medications, allergies, and insurance information. Getting this done ahead of time means your appointment is spent on you — not on paperwork.
If you have records from a previous provider, it’s helpful to have them transferred before your visit, though not required. Katherine will review whatever history you can provide and build from there.
Your First Visit — What Happens in the Room
Your first appointment with Katherine Batson is intentionally longer than a typical sick visit. We want to understand your full picture — not just why you’re here today, but where you’ve been and where you want to go.
We’ll review your health history in detail, including any chronic conditions, past surgeries, family history of illness, and current medications. Katherine will perform a physical examination appropriate to your age and health status, and we’ll discuss any immediate concerns you came in with.
Based on that conversation, we’ll order baseline lab work if appropriate — a metabolic panel, thyroid function, lipid panel, blood sugar, and other markers relevant to your history. These results give us a true starting point for your care.
What We’re Looking For
Primary care is about the full picture, not just the presenting complaint. During your first visit, Katherine is evaluating for early signs of conditions that often develop silently — hypertension, prediabetes, thyroid dysfunction, high cholesterol, and others that may not have obvious symptoms yet.
Catching these early, through routine examination and lab work, is one of the most valuable things primary care can do. It’s not dramatic. It’s not urgent. But it’s genuinely life-changing when something is found before it becomes a crisis.
Leaving With a Plan
You won’t leave your first appointment with a list of referrals and no next steps. You’ll leave with a clear understanding of what we found, what we’re monitoring, and what we’re going to do about it — together.
If you have chronic conditions that need ongoing management, we’ll establish a care plan. If you’re interested in our weight loss program, hormone therapy, or other services, we’ll talk through those options. If everything looks great, we’ll schedule your next annual visit and you’ll know exactly where you stand.
That’s what primary care should feel like. Clear. Personal. Yours.
Accepting New Patients Now
The Batson Clinic is currently accepting new patients in Little Rock with same-week appointments available. We accept most major insurance plans, including BCBS Arkansas, Aetna, Cigna, Medicare, UnitedHealthcare, Tricare, UMR, Wellcare, and Ambetter.
Call (501) 406-3933 or book online at batsonhealth.com. We’d love to be your primary care home in Little Rock.