Dr. Paul Payne: Hi, I’m Dr. Paul Payne, I’m associated with the Veranda, the OBGYN Associates there, and I’m going to talk to you today about a few things we’re doing there that we think are pretty exciting over at the Veranda. Some of the things that we have going on there are what I consider pretty cutting edge. When I interviewed at practices, I looked all over the southeast. In Albany, with its great quail hunting, and its wonderful medical community, I decided to come here, and specifically at the Veranda, because they do things in their office that most people are only reading about.

For example, contraception in the office, permanent contraception, they do that there. They also do services for ladies who may be having some problems with their monthlies and can permanently take care of that for them there in the office. Some of the other things that we do there, we have certainly hormonal programs for our patients.

And the nice thing about it, is we also have pediatrics, we have family medicine, we have endocrinology, and of course, OBGYN. So we’re like your one-stop shop for medicine in the southwest Georgia area.

Basically because the Meredith Place, which is associated with Phoebe Putney, and the Veranda, if you even look at the buildings, they’re kind of modeled after one another and it’s a healthcare center away from downtown, in the northwest part of town. And services that we may not provide, they can just go right over to the area next to us and have any of those things done that they need to have done.

I think 2002 is when the Veranda officially opened, but I think it’s been a brainchild of some of the senior partners there for quite a while. And, you know, what a great place, it’s such a beautiful building, the first time I saw it I was just taken back, I was like, wow, this is just impressive, you know. And it really is a nice building and they have a lot of extra things there with our outdoor fountain, you can walk around and of course they have the coffee shop next door at the Phoebe place there. So it’s really a nice area, very well groomed, and I see people all the time there, after work, I’ll see people coming, kids playing football, walking around, they get exercise there. It’s just a nice, safe environment for the family.