Molly Koehler, DO

Molly Koehler is a primary care physician at Marin Direct Primary Care in San Rafael. Koehler traces the decision to become a doctor back to age nine, when a family friend's three-year-old daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, and the pull toward caring for people and families when they needed it most.

Primary care offered the chance to build those lasting relationships, but a previous job made it hard to deliver on that. Managing more than 2,000 patients meant 17 or more visits a day, often just fifteen minutes each when a visit really needed thirty or sixty, leaving both patient and doctor shortchanged.

Patients regularly said how much they valued quick answers and same-day access when they were sick, yet even squeezing in extra visits and working late, that level of attention became impossible to sustain. Insurance paperwork ate up the rest of the day. Bringing Direct Primary Care to Marin is Koehler's way of putting the focus back on the person in the room.