Wellness on call

If you're sick in the middle of the night or in a strange town, the last thing you want to do is drag yourself to a hospital emergency room or wait to see a doctor in a crowded walk-in clinic.

For about the same price as a co-pay for the emergency room, Sabrina Corazza's Naples-based company, AM-PM Elite Care, will send a doctor to your house or hotel room in Lee or Collier County any time.

Corazza, 30, managed a similar service in Miami and discovered that no one offered this in the Naples-Fort Myers area. With a desire to be an entrepreneur, she launched the company earlier this year and is its CEO.

For $525, a doctor who works for her service will come to your house any time of day or night and spend up to an hour to provide a diagnosis and prescriptions. “People are willing to pay for good service,” she says.

Finding patients isn't a problem, especially at busy hotels. Corazza says her biggest challenge in establishing the business was finding doctors. She hardly got any response after she posted “help wanted” advertisements on medical Web sites geared to doctors. That's in part because many area doctors already have well-established practices in the area and aren't looking for extra work.

On a whim, Corazza posted the openings on Craigslist, the free classified advertising Web site and immediately found four qualified doctors who contract to work part-time. “I was shocked,” she laughs.

While Corazza declines to say what percentage of revenues the doctors get, she says “it's worth it for them.” What's more, Corazza says her company pays $10,000 a year for malpractice insurance so the doctors don't have to carry that expense.

Corazza says her doctors like working for her company because they can spend more time with patients and don't have to file insurance paperwork. Although Corazza says she'll help patients to file insurance claims, it's a cash business in which customers pay by credit card. “They want to work full-time for us,” she says.

When they're not on call, Corazza also organizes health clinics in communities where doctors can check residents' blood pressure, cholesterol and have their skin checked for cancer.

A native of Switzerland, Corazza was a former tennis pro ranked in the top 300 in the world and fifth in Switzerland before injury sidelined her. Once a month, she travels to Boston where she coaches the Harvard University tennis team for a few days. “I'm very good at pushing myself,” she says.

Although she still plays tennis a few days a week, yoga keeps her strong and focused. “It's the thing that helps me the most,” she says.