MISSISSIPPI GULF COAST—It’s the difference between letting someone with a 102-degree fever sit in the waiting room, or taking them in the back right away and offering them something cool to drink.

“I want people to come in and say, ‘I’ve never been to a doctor’s office like that,’” said Nancy Weible, MD, whose Care Plus clinic opened in January in Biloxi.

Located at the E-Fitness and Wellness Center and affiliated with Biloxi Regional Medical Center, the new clinic brings to Biloxi a patient-care philosophy Weible practiced in Hattiesburg for the past 11 years.

“What we provide is a service,” she said. “If you go to a fine restaurant, you expect to be treated fine. In the same way, we should lay out the red carpet for our patients.”

One of the integral ways Weible seeks to do that is also one of the most surprising: She doesn’t take appointments…at all.

“You would think you’d have times when the waiting room would be crowded, but it’s amazing how it works out,” she said. “We even had a method in Hattiesburg during flu season where we’d say, ‘You can go run your errands and do what you need to do, and we’ll call you within 20 or 30 minutes of your being next in line.’”

While some patients would still prefer knowing they have a certain spot on their doctor’s schedule, others appreciate not having to cancel an appointment if something else comes up.

And, of course, just because a patient has an appointment at a clinic doesn’t mean he or she won’t still have to wait.

“You may have made an appointment for your diabetes checkup three months ago, and now the doctor’s backed up and you’ve been sitting here for an hour,” she said. “This way, people can’t say, ‘I’ve been sitting here for my appointment.’”

Weible’s practice incorporates aspects of both urgent care and family practice. The hybrid idea evolved in her Hattiesburg practice, which started out as a hospital-owned urgent-care facility. She became the owner of the clinic — NAN Family Healthcare, as in “No Appointment Necessary” — and many of her patients wanted to come to her for their regular care, too.

Weible has been practicing medicine for 25 years and is certified by the American Board of Family Practice. She is also a medical review officer.

Over the years, pediatrics has been a large part of her practice, as has women’s health. In the past she provided a day care for sick kids whose parents needed to go to work.

“My happiest days are when I can see kids and have their whole experience be upbeat,” she said. “They’re not scared; they’re not crying. They might have come in really frightened, but by the time they go out, they’re skipping.”

Her own desire to become a physician began in childhood, with a doctor who made house calls in the small Missouri town where she grew up.

“I had a bad sore throat when I was 2 years old,” she said. “He came to the house and gave me a shot, and left the little plastic syringe for me to play with. After that, playing doctor was all I did.”

Between treating all her baby dolls’ boo-boos and passing out candy like medicine, Weible earned everyone’s assumption that she’d be a doctor one day. After high school, she’d been accepted into nursing school in St. Louis, but a family she was working for encouraged her to shoot for medical school.

She was accepted into the medical program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where a combined baccalaureate-medical degree program allowed her to graduate in just six years. She then completed a family-practice residency and, thanks to the shortened program, was able to open her first practice at age 27.

She returned to the small-town setting in which she’d always imagined practicing.

“In medical school, I was very idealistic. You think you’re going to save the world,” she said. “And I always had in mind I was going to be like my hometown doctor, so that’s what I did.”

Reality, however, didn’t hold the charm she expected. She was on call constantly, covering the emergency room, the hospital’s inpatient rounds and her own outpatient clinic.

“I realized, this is crazy,” she said. “I’m going to die really young doing this, and I’ll never be able to have kids. That’s why I started going into urgent-care settings.”

When Biloxi Regional Medical Center invited her to move her Hattiesburg practice to the Gulf Coast, the decision was not an easy one.

“I had an established practice, and it was very difficult to decide to leave it and my patients,” she said. “But I was at a point where I wanted to do something refreshing again. This opportunity came up, and it sounded so appealing to be able to do something new.”

The move also made sense for this stage in her family’s life. Her three children — Ryan, Laura and Rebekah — have left home for college. Her husband, George Mars, an airline flight engineer, is a native of the Gulf Coast.

“He used to tell me how nice people are here, and he wasn’t kidding,” she said. “I’ve been blown away by this area. I can go to the bank or the grocery store, and everybody says, ‘Call me if you need something!’ It’s just like a different world.”

Outside of work, Weible enjoys family activities like fishing and games, as well as gardening and church activities.

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