One patient’s visit to Dr. Brian Forrest, who runs Access Healthcare in Apex, shows that this little family practice isn’t your typical doctor’s office.

He came in to get his blood pressure checked, then, as an afterthought, asked if the doctor would freeze off several benign growths and administer a pneumonia vaccine.

Not only did Forrest have the time to do all these extras, but the whole visit came to about $165 — and, no, that wasn’t just his co-pay.

That was his total bill, plain and simple — no insurance necessary.

That’s how Dr. Forrest likes it.

In 2002, he started Access Healthcare, located at 1031 W. Williams St., in an effort to create a simpler model of medicine: smaller support staff, no insurance claims processing, flat fees posted in plain sight and fewer appointments scheduled per day.

“I draw my own blood, do my own shots,” he said of the minimalist five-person staff who manage a 5,000-patient caseload. “I even take out the trash.”

For the approximate 85,000 uninsured people in Wake County, this transparent approach has been nothing short of a miracle.

“Even if I got health insurance, I’d still go to this guy,” said patient Brian Williams, who drives from Moncure to see Forrest. “He’s a godsend.”

Williams, who was introduced to the doctor through his wife, who he said “went gaga” over him, has catastrophic health insurance but relies on Forrest for his everyday ailments.

He credits the doctor with managing his high blood pressure and cholesterol — conditions he noticed when Williams came in for a cold.

It’s this sort of familiarity that Forrest said is only possible when patients aren’t squeezed into 15-minute slots by overworked doctors who see up to 45 patients per day — a grim reality he experienced as an intern at WakeMed that motivated him to open Access Healthcare.

The 1998 UNC-Chapel Hill graduate networked with laboratories and radiologists who agreed to cut their prices to avoid slow insurance pay-outs — for example, a general blood profile is only about $25, about 80 percent off.

It looks as if the doctor is starting a movement.

He said 20 other doctors have picked his brain and started their own no-insurance clinics around the country.

“Insurance companies have caused doctors to spend too much on overhead,” he said, which dominoes into cramming in more visits to generate revenue. “My patients don’t feel like they’re in a factory.”

You can call Access Healthcare at 363-0190 or visit acchealth.com.