Dr. David Larsen is surrounded by family, friends and staff at a surprise celebration at the Old English?Inn

Clinic celebrates 25 years of family care

From the child with flu, to the father with gastritis and stress, to the grandmother who just needs a B-12 shot, Dr. David Larsen is the primary care physician for the whole family.

It’s been 25 years since he opened Northside Medical Clinic on Hughes Drive in north Jackson, and Dr. Larsen continues to enjoy his patients and the variety of ailments he treats each day.

He is a board-certified family practitioner, what he calls “today’s family doctor.” On an average day, he says, he will see 30-35 patients dealing with such maladies as the flu, sleep disorders, menstrual problems, gastritis, stress, depression, hypertension and diabetes.
In many ways, his medical practice hasn’t changed much since he first started. “I’ve seen my practice generally age up,” he says. The elderly woman who needed the B-12 shot, for example, has been coming to his clinic for 25 years.

There have been some changes. He no longer delivers babies because of the strain that puts on his schedule and the high malpractice insurance rates. He treats more depression and similar problems, mainly because medications for those conditions have gotten better. And just recently, he gave up seeing patients in the hospital to the hospitalists, medical doctors who specialize in hospital care. The latter gives him more time for being at the clinic. This enables him to specialize in outpatient medical management while leaving hospital care to physicians who are available 24 hours a day, he says.
He’s also developed a special interest in sleeping problems. “I enjoy sleep; I think it’s important.”

Dr. Larsen said he knew from a young age that he wanted to practice medicine. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do from sixth grade on.”
He credits the influence of his own family doctor while growing up and, for those who remember, the popularity of television’s Marcus Welby, M.D. In med-ical school, he enjoyed the variety of ages and medical problems that a family practitioner sees each day.

He calls himself “a physician with ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).” I get distracted by whatever my patients want to talk about.” He believes that willingness to talk with his patients is what keeps
them happy with their medical care. “I try to be a member of the family. They appreciate the extra time and concern.”

Dr. Larsen graduated from the University of North Carolina Medical School in Chapel Hill in 1976. Three years later, he became the third physician to graduate from the new family practice residency program offered by the University of Tennessee in Jackson.

Before opening his practice, though, he served three years in the U.S. Army. He returned to Jackson because he and his wife, Sara, enjoyed the community. He located his practice on Hughes Drive in the center of the few subdivisions that were in north Jackson at the time. Through the years, the building expanded as the practice grew.

The first physician to join him was Dr. Tim Hayden in 1986. For eight years, Dr. Jackie Taylor worked with them. Dr. Elizabeth Londino joined the clinic in 2001. Also on staff are nurse practitioners Fred J. Sesti and Marion Joy Scott.

“It’s always been a healthy practice,” Dr. Larsen said. He added that being general physicians “allows us to mold a practice the way we want it.”

The Larsens have four children and two grandchildren. He is a member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, Tennessee Academy of Family

Physicians, Tennessee Medical Association, The Christian Medical and Dental Society and the Southern Medical Association.

Dr. Larsen has no plans to retire: “I enjoy coming to the office every day. This is just as much fun as it is work.”