Christy Atkinson, MD

About

  • Pronouns: She/her

  • Occupation and Specialty: Physician - Family medicine

  • Location (Clinic/hospital): M Health Fairview River Falls

  • Location (City): River Falls, WI

  • Offers Telehealth: Yes

  • Contact Information: https://www.mhealthfairview.org/locations/M-Health-Fairview-Clinic---River-Falls

  • Bio: I am a board-certified family medicine physician, and I provide primary care to ALL people of ALL ages in an outpatient clinic setting. As of summer 2024, I will no longer be providing obstetrical care. When not in the clinic/hospital, I am actively involved in advocacy relating to health care financing reform, gender affirming care, weight neutral care, reproductive justice, and fighting the prison industrial complex. I am involved in/leading clinic-based quality improvement efforts to make our clinic more accessible by challenging automatic weighing processes and working to improve our gender affirming care.

Approach to care

  • What does it look like for you to provide care to patients in larger bodies? How is, or isn’t, your approach different from how you care for patients in smaller bodies? If you work with children, how is or isn’t your approach different when working with children?

    My approach is the same for folks of all bodies. I do not bring up weight unless there is a significant change in weight one way or another that warrants exploration related to a person's wellbeing and my care of them (ie.. new significant weight loss could be due to depression; new significant weight gain may be due to new psychiatric medication, etc). If you bring up weight, my approach will continue to be compassionate, centering your autonomy and agency in your care. I will explore with you any feelings you may be having around health changes/struggles. If you ask me about starting weight loss medications, expect a full informed consent conversation. Again, your agency is most important.

    The approach is the same for children and adolescents: I note but do not bring up weight unless it is medically relevant. If that is the case, I will try to remove kids from the room for these conversations. Regardless, I will use our time together to counsel on and support health-promoting behaviors, no matter a child's size.

    I am learning and continue to challenge myself in the realm of weight-neutral care; I am very open to feedback from patients and appreciate it when it is offered.

  • What is your perspective on how weight is or is not related to health?

    Weight in and of itself is not a marker of health. Weight is related to health insomuch as anti-fat bias affects health. I subscribe to the Health at Every Size (R) Principle that 'Health is a sociopolitical construct that reflects the values of society'

  • Finish this sentence: “Fat people are…” 

    important and valuable PEOPLE.

  • How do you, your clinic, and the healthcare system you work in use BMI (i.e BMI cutoffs for accessing certain services, BMI on charts and printouts, etc)? Is this flexible?

    Unfortunately, because the health insurance industry has complete buy-in to the false causal connection of BMI to health, health systems are constantly trying to demonstrate/document a person's ratio so that they might get paid more by insurance. This results in BMI automatically getting pulled in to the electronic record and visit note if weight/height are recorded in the chart somewhere. I myself consistently delete this information from my note, or add a note of how this is not relevant to my patient's care. Because it can sometimes flag in patients' face if we are looking at the chart together, I will then address the issue directly and have a discussion during the visit of how I am addressing the pop-ups. My health system does offer the option to have your weight hidden from you in your MyChart and After Visit Summaries.

  • If a patient declines to be weighed, how do you and/or your staff proceed?

    This is fully supported by myself and my staff. There is also the option to have a blind weight done (step backwards on the scale).

  • If a patient declines to discuss weight loss, nutrition, and/or exercise, how do you proceed?

    I would respect this, 100%. In the future, once trust has been established, I would be curious to hear more about a person's experience with body movement practices, to understand pain/access/other barriers, from the framework that body movement can have non-weight related benefits.

  • What does the physical accessibility of your office space look like? What kinds of accommodations are present for people in larger bodies? Are there things you wish were in place that are currently not? 

    Our waiting room is a large space with several types of seating, including air chairs, loveseat/couch chairs with armrests, and barstool height chairs without armrests. Our exam room seating includes an extra wide chair with armrests. Additional smaller foldable chairs without armrests are added to the rooms as needed. Our exam tables are "standard" and do not change height, but the table in the procedure room does go up and down. There are multiple large bathrooms. One bathroom near my exam rooms has an extra large toilet that is bolted to the wall only and has a weight limit of 1,000 lbs.

  • What do you do to allow fat people to feel comfortable and welcome in your office? 

    If I have a heads up in some way about your visit (visit note, or a MyChart message from you), I will work with my staff to ensure we do everything to support the visit being a positive, weight-neutral experience. I am also always in an evaluation mindset for how we can work to improve the accessibility of our space.

  • If you’d like to use this space to talk about any identities (gender, race, size, sexuality, etc.) you hold and how this relates to your care, please do so. 

    I acknowledge my identities as a cis, able-bodied white woman from a privileged background who has not experienced life in a larger body, and how this informs the care I provide and relationships I hold.