Your clinical day in Brenham begins at 8:00 a.m. and ends at 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. You will practice full-spectrum family medicine across the entire age range, from well-child visits and adolescent sports physicals to chronic disease management and Medicare wellness exams. The patient population in Washington County reflects Brenham's identity as both a growing community and a retirement destination.
You will see a meaningful volume of geriatric patients managing diabetes, hypertension, heart failure, COPD, and arthritis, alongside younger families, Blinn College students, and working adults employed by Blue Bell Creameries, Valmont Industries, and the surrounding agricultural economy. Pediatric patients are typically paneled directly to the physician, with the clinic's advanced practice provider handling overflow and same-day pediatric needs.
This is not a cookie-cutter urgent care model. You will build longitudinal relationships with patients and families who return to you year after year.
The Brenham clinic is a modern, well-equipped facility that keeps your patients in-house for services that would require separate referrals or off-site visits at many primary care practices. On-site physical therapy means your patients with musculoskeletal complaints, post-surgical recovery needs, or chronic pain can begin therapy steps from your exam room.
On-site X-ray capability lets you evaluate fractures, chest complaints, and joint issues during the same visit rather than sending patients across town. On-site laboratory services allow you to order and receive results for routine bloodwork, metabolic panels, A1C monitoring, and urinalysis without asking patients to make a second trip. These resources reduce delays in your clinical decision-making and improve the patient experience at every visit.
Your call responsibilities are among the most manageable you will find in any family medicine opportunity. Call is shared across the entire College Station, Bryan, and Brenham primary care group, which distributes the burden across multiple providers.
You will take call only one to two weekends per year and five to six weekdays per year. After-hours calls are routed through a triage line, and the vast majority are low-acuity items: prescription refills, simple clinical questions, and non-emergent concerns. There is no hospital call requirement.
You will not round on inpatients, take ER call, or be pulled away from your home in the middle of the night for admissions. When you leave the clinic at 5:00 p.m., your evening belongs to you.
You will chart in Epic GOLD, CommonSpirit's premium implementation of the Epic electronic health record. The Brenham/College Station market was the first in Texas to go live on Epic GOLD, which offers a faster, more streamlined experience compared to standard Epic builds.
If you have used Epic before, the workflow will feel familiar but noticeably smoother. If you are coming from a different EMR, Epic's widespread adoption means abundant training resources and a system your future colleagues and referring physicians already know.
Built directly into your Epic workflow is an AI-powered ambient documentation tool that listens to your patient encounters and generates clinical notes in real time. This scribe technology significantly reduces your after-hours charting burden and allows you to maintain eye contact with patients rather than staring at a screen during visits.
The combination of a premium EMR and integrated AI documentation is a meaningful quality-of-life improvement that protects your administrative time and keeps your charts closed before you leave for the day.
For physicians who want clinical variety beyond outpatient family medicine, optional inpatient and emergency department shifts are available at a critical access hospital approximately 25 to 30 minutes away in Navasota.
These shifts are entirely voluntary and come with additional compensation (rate to be determined based on shift type and frequency). This option gives you a way to diversify your clinical experience and increase your earnings without any obligation or expectation from leadership.
CHI St. Joseph Health maintains an academic partnership with the Texas A&M Health Science Center. You will have the opportunity to teach medical students and participate in lecturing, with compensation of $100 per hour for lecture time.
A student support stipend is also available for half-day and full-day teaching commitments. These opportunities are optional and allow you to shape the next generation of physicians while adding to your income, without the publish-or-perish pressure of a full academic appointment.
Your clinical life in Brenham is defined by what it does not include: no hospital call, no overnight shifts, no excessive patient volumes, no charting that follows you home. What it does include is a well-supported outpatient practice with on-site ancillary services, premium technology, and a schedule that lets you practice thorough, relationship-based medicine without sacrificing your personal life.