Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Chesapeake Regional Primary Care Story


CHESAPEAKE REGIONAL PRIMARY CARE

Eddie Akragorn, MD excels in attentive, personalized care

by Cristi Sanchez


Eddie Akragorn, MD of Chesapeake Regional Primary Care

Eddie Akragorn, MD of Chesapeake Regional Primary Care

Finding the right primary care provider can be like finding the right pair of shoes. So many components have to come together for the perfect fit. Chesapeake Regional Medical Group is confident that it's very first primary care practice, conveniently located near the hospital, will be an excellent fit for many in the Chesapeake area.

Tucked away at the end of Gainsborough Square lies the newly renovated office of Eddie Akragorn, MD, the sole physician at Chesapeake Regional Primary Care. "I'm delighted to be here," Dr. Akragorn says. "This is a great community, and I'm excited to serve and be a part of it!"


"One thing I love about this practice
is that I can devote
the needed time to my patients-
with the full support
of the administration
at Chesapeake Regional Medical Group."

- Eddie Akragorn, MD


A Santa Barbara, California native, Dr. Akragorn always loved science when he was young and knew that he wanted to pursue a career that would make a difference in people's lives. "Going through high school, I gave a lot of thought to which science-related career path I could take to make a difference in the world," he recalls with a smile. "I felt that practicing medicine was the best way to use my skills and passions."

After graduating with his bachelor's degree from the University of California, Santa Barbara, Dr. Akragorn switched coasts and attended medical school at St. George's University School of Medicine in New York before going to Virginia Tech's Carilion School of Medicine and Research Institute for his residency.

With his parents having retired to nearby South Carolina, Dr. Akragorn decided to make Virginia his home after completing his residency. The state was a perfect fit for his love of water sports. "I love the water!" he enthuses. "In fact, every summer I get together with old friends I met during residency for a weekend at Smith Mountain Lake."

Coastal Virginia's sand and surf were calling his name, and Dr. Akragorn knew that he couldn't remain in the mountains of Blacksburg. Setting his sights on working in Hampton Roads, he quickly found work with a local practice. "In 2013, I joined a group of doctors at a family practice in Virginia Beach," he recalls. It wasn't long before Dr. Akragorn's dedication to his patients and job earned him a supervisory role at the practice, where he remained for five and a half years.

In January 2019, opportunity knocked with an opening for a family physician to run Chesapeake Regional Medical Group's brand-new primary care office. With his extensive medical, business, and supervisory credentials, Dr. Akragorn jumped at the chance to have his own office.

"I always wanted to have my own practice," he says. "This job offered me the convenience of a medical group while still providing some flexibility and autonomy."

Patients also find many conveniences at his full-service office, which accepts all insurance. With same day appointments and minimal wait times, Dr. Akragorn also provides on-site lab work, Point of Care testing (including strep, flu, blood sugar, and kidney function tests), and a convenient referral process to all physicians within the Chesapeake Regional Medical Group.

"I have the full support of the hospital staff and the physicians in the group. If I do need a referral for general surgery or a specialist consult, we can usually get patients in pretty quickly," Dr. Akragorn explains. "The collaboration between offices is remarkable. In other healthcare systems, it can be difficult to know exactly to whom you're referring your patients or if that physician will send you notes after the visit. When we make referrals here, there's no doubt that we'll get what we need, and there's a high degree of confidence that patients will get the care that they require."

Providing quality care for patients is Dr. Akragorn's primary focus. From young adult through geriatric, he and his team treat patients with kindness and compassion. "We think of our patients as our neighbors," he smiles. "And with a senior living facility right next door to our office, many of them are!" he adds with a chuckle. "Many of those patients just walk over from their front door to ours."


"I believe patient care
begins at the front desk
and continues to nurse triage,
to me, and back out to the reception area.
We all strive to make each visit
a smooth, pleasurable experience.
We like to think that
we're healing Chesapeake
one patient at a time."

 - Eddie Akragorn, MD


In addition to kindness and compassion, Dr. Akragorn offers his patients something rare these days- his time. "One thing I love about this practice is that I can devote the needed time to my patients- with the full support of the administration at Chesapeake Regional Medical Group," he points out. "Doctors devoting time to their patients is something that has diminished in recent years. But our patients are being listened to, and they're getting a quality of care unsurpassed in the area."

Dr. Akragorn is quick to stress that the satisfaction of the patients does not rest solely on his shoulders. "I believe patient care begins at the front desk and continues to nurse triage, to me, and back out to the reception area. We all strive to make each visit a smooth, pleasurable experience," he asserts. "We like to think that we're healing Chesapeake one patient at a time."

 Dr. Akragorn's patients are not the only people who receive his time and resources. He enjoys teaching and mentoring up-and-coming medical professionals.  As Adjunct Clinical Professor for the ODU Graduate College of Health Sciences, Dr. Akragorn uses his practice as a teaching office for medical students, and he's excited that soon Liberty University's College of Medicine will be sending medical students as well.

"I've been doing this since 2015," he says. "I feel that I owe it to the next generation of physicians. The previous generation was so generous in teaching and mentoring me, and I want to pay it forward. I did my residency here. Virginia taught me, so I'll help teach others in Virginia and give back to the medical community here."

Giving, helping, and caring: despite Dr. Akragorn's love of science, these are his true passions. He has dedicated himself to providing his patients with his time and with high-quality, compassionate, personalized care- the type of attention from a bygone era in which patients were neighbors, not numbers. Nothing could fit our community better than that.




Chesapeake Regional Primary Care

112 Gainsborough Square
Chesapeake, VA 23320

(757) 410-2287
www.ChesapeakeRegional.com