Internal medicine is adult primary care practiced at the level of formal subspecialty training. An internist completes a three-year ACGME-accredited internal medicine residency after medical school and sits for the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certifying examination, then carries that Diplomate status forward through the ABIM ten-year Maintenance of Certification (MOC) cycle of longitudinal knowledge assessment, performance improvement modules, and CME. Fellowship in the American College of Physicians (FACP) is a separate honorific awarded by ACP after several years of active practice, peer nomination, and sustained scholarly or service contribution to the field, and the credential travels with the physician across practice settings as a marker of senior standing among internists.
The three Nashville practices below are physician-owned adult primary care groups, distinct in scope from family medicine offices that mix pediatric care into the same panel. Each handles the long-term internal medicine workload that drives adult outpatient care in Davidson County: type 2 diabetes management against the American Diabetes Association Standards of Care, hypertension treatment under JNC 8 and the subsequent ACC/AHA blood pressure guidelines, atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk reduction under the AHA/ACC cholesterol guidelines and the pooled cohort equation, USPSTF-graded preventive screening for cancer and metabolic disease, geriatric assessment for patients past sixty-five, and chronic disease follow-up coordinated with cardiology, endocrinology, nephrology, and pulmonology subspecialists. Tennessee Code Annotated Title 63 Chapter 6 governs the licensure of medical doctors in the state under the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, and every internist on staff at the practices below holds an active TN medical license alongside ABIM Diplomate status.
Quick Comparison #
| Firm | Credentials | Focus |
|---|---|---|
| The Frist Clinic | Founded 1993 on TriStar Centennial Medical Center campus, ABIM-board-certified internists across thirty-nine-physician roster spanning fifteen specialty areas. | Annual physicals, USPSTF screening, hypertension and lipid management, diabetes care, on-site infusion center, intramural specialty referral. |
| Heritage Medical Associates | Founded 1991, 170+ providers across fourteen offices, primary care roster board-certified in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Internal Medicine-Pediatrics. | Adult chronic disease, preventive screening, MDVIP-affiliated concierge tier under Dr. James Jones, MD, intramural specialty referral chain. |
| Nashville Concierge Medicine | Dr. William F. Conway, MD, FACP, FASAM, Fellow of the American College of Physicians and Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine. | Adult primary care, diabetes care, geriatric primary care, sexual health, testosterone replacement, menopause management, addiction medicine consultation. |
1. The Frist Clinic #
The Frist Clinic was founded in 1993 and operates from 2400 Patterson Street, Suite 400, in midtown Nashville on the TriStar Centennial Medical Center campus, with appointment scheduling through (615) 342-5900. The group bills itself as an internal medicine clinic at its core and has grown the roster to thirty-nine physicians across fifteen specialty areas, with internal medicine sitting alongside pulmonary disease, endocrinology and diabetes, gastroenterology, and infectious disease as in-house referral pathways that an adult primary care patient can reach without leaving the building. The internal medicine physicians are board certified through ABIM and provide primary care services to adult patients, including annual exams, chronic disease management, and acute office visits.
The clinic’s location on the TriStar Centennial campus puts the inpatient hospital, the adjacent specialty buildings, and the Frist Clinic outpatient suites within a single block, which simplifies the workflow when an internist needs to admit a patient, route to a specialty consultation, or coordinate imaging. An in-house infusion center at Suite 400 administers FDA-approved infusion therapies for chronic and acute conditions, giving the internists a direct intramural option for biologic infusions, IV antibiotics, and iron replacement that would otherwise route to an outside infusion facility. The practice is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Service Mix at the Frist Clinic #
The internal medicine service line at the Frist Clinic covers the standard outpatient adult continuum: annual physical examinations and USPSTF-recommended preventive screening, hypertension and lipid management with periodic ASCVD risk re-calculation, diabetes care including A1C monitoring and insulin titration, chronic kidney disease staging and follow-up, thyroid disease management, weight management, tobacco cessation counseling, and adult immunization under the CDC adult schedule including influenza, pneumococcal, shingles, Tdap, and COVID-19. The intramural pulmonary, gastroenterology, endocrinology, and infectious disease departments handle the subspecialty referrals that arise out of those primary care encounters, and the on-campus TriStar Centennial Medical Center handles inpatient admission when the clinical course requires it.
https://www.tristarmedgroup.com/locations/the-frist-clinic-at-tristar-centennial
2. Heritage Medical Associates #
Heritage Medical Associates has operated since 1991 and is the largest independent multi-specialty physician group in Middle Tennessee, with more than one hundred seventy primary care and specialty providers across fourteen locations in Davidson, Wilson, and Williamson counties. The internal medicine division is the adult primary care backbone of that platform and runs out of the main administrative office at 222 22nd Avenue North, Suite 100, in Nashville, with the main line at (615) 284-2222 and a secondary administrative line at (629) 255-3469. The group describes its primary care physicians as board certified in Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, and Internal Medicine-Pediatrics, and the internal medicine roster sees adult patients across the chronic disease, preventive, and acute outpatient continuum.
The MDVIP-affiliated tier inside Heritage gives patients who want the concierge model a personalized, membership-based version of adult primary care without leaving the larger group. MDVIP is a national network of internal medicine and family medicine physicians who limit panel size, run an annual wellness assessment with advanced diagnostic testing as the anchor of the membership year, and provide same-day or next-day appointments alongside 24/7 phone availability with the physician. Dr. James Jones, MD practices in the MDVIP tier at Heritage and reaches at (629) 255-2208, and additional MDVIP-affiliated coverage runs through Heritage offices at Saint Thomas West, Mt. Juliet, Brentwood, and Green Hills.
Multi-Specialty Internal Medicine Coordination #
A patient who establishes adult primary care at Heritage gains direct intramural referral to allergy and immunology, behavioral health, dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, neurology, obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, otolaryngology, rheumatology, and sleep medicine under the same Heritage banner, with shared electronic records and a single set of intake forms across departments. That structure removes the records-transfer friction that arises when a primary care internist refers a patient to an outside specialty group, and it lets the internist follow up on a cardiology consultation, an endocrinology medication adjustment, or a gastroenterology screening colonoscopy result inside the same chart on the same day the specialty visit closes.
https://www.heritagemedical.com/specialties/primary-care/
3. Nashville Concierge Medicine #
Nashville Concierge Medicine is the private internal medicine practice of William F. Conway, MD, FACP, FASAM, located at 1914 Charlotte Avenue, Suite 102, in Nashville, with direct physician access at (615) 708-0390. Dr. Conway completed three years of internal medicine residency training plus one year of pediatrics training and has run a concierge primary care model in Nashville since 2013, with a portion of the current patient panel having stayed in his care for over ten years. The credential set carries the FACP Fellow of the American College of Physicians designation for senior standing in internal medicine and the FASAM Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine designation for advanced training in addiction care.
The concierge model at the clinic operates on a pay-per-visit basis at three hundred fifty dollars per in-person appointment, with no membership entrance fee and no monthly subscription, which inverts the typical concierge structure where patients pay an annual retainer for access. The practice does not file insurance, so patients receive an itemized receipt and submit out-of-network claims directly when their plan covers that option. Same-day visits, extended appointment lengths designed for thoughtful conversation and in-depth evaluation, and direct physician access for messaging and refills are the structural features that the group lists as the core of the concierge experience.
Clinical Scope at the Clinic #
The clinical service mix is adult primary care internal medicine in its classic form, with named focus areas in diabetes care, geriatric primary care, men’s and women’s sexual health, testosterone replacement therapy, menopause management, ADHD evaluation and treatment, and addiction medicine consultation under Dr. Conway’s FASAM training. The extended appointment model is structured for patients who want the time to discuss a chronic disease workup, a medication change, or a complex preventive screening question without the fifteen-minute slot constraint that drives most insurance-billed primary care. Tailored medical planning around chronic condition management and preventive care is the operational frame the group describes in its visit format.
Private Primary Care and Internal Medicine Physician in Nashville
Reference Notes #
ABIM Diplomate certification requires completion of an ACGME-accredited three-year internal medicine residency followed by passing the ABIM Internal Medicine Certifying Examination, and the credential is maintained through the ten-year MOC cycle that combines longitudinal knowledge assessment, performance improvement, and CME against ABIM standards. FACP, Fellow of the American College of Physicians, is awarded by ACP based on peer nomination, sustained practice activity, board certification, and scholarly or service contribution to internal medicine. NCQA Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) recognition is granted by the National Committee for Quality Assurance to practices that demonstrate team-based care, population health management, care management and care coordination, and performance measurement under the NCQA PCMH standards. MDVIP is a national network of internal medicine and family medicine concierge primary care physicians built around limited panel size, annual wellness assessment with advanced diagnostics, and 24/7 phone availability. USPSTF adult preventive screening recommendations from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force are the evidence-graded reference set that internal medicine offices use for cancer screening, cardiovascular screening, infectious disease screening, and behavioral counseling indications in adults. JNC 8 set the contemporary thresholds for hypertension treatment initiation and target blood pressure ranges, and the ACC/AHA hypertension guideline that followed updated the staging definitions and added recommendations on ambulatory monitoring and combination therapy. The American Diabetes Association Standards of Medical Care in Diabetes is the annually updated reference for type 2 diabetes diagnosis, glycemic targets, pharmacologic therapy selection including SGLT2 inhibitors and GLP-1 receptor agonists, and screening for diabetic complications. The AHA/ACC cholesterol guideline frames atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk assessment around the pooled cohort equation and structures statin therapy intensity around primary prevention categories and secondary prevention indications. Tennessee Code Annotated Title 63 Chapter 6 governs the licensure of medical doctors in Tennessee under the Tennessee Board of Medical Examiners, including the scope of practice, continuing medical education requirements, and disciplinary framework that apply to every TN-licensed internist.
Selection Methodology #
The three practices above were screened against the broader Nashville internal medicine field using these filters: minimum tenure on Nashville-area patient care, verifiable American Board of Internal Medicine Diplomate status on file, identifiable practice brand and working street address on the practice’s own website, and a published service scope that maps to patient need without scope-of-practice overreach. National rollups, mid-level-only practices without published physician supervision, and offices without verifiable street addresses were excluded.
Frequently Asked Questions #
Q: How do I verify a Nashville internal medicine practitioner holds the right credentials?
A: Use the American Board of Medical Specialties Certification Matters lookup at certificationmatters.org, the Tennessee Department of Health practitioner profile at health.tn.gov, and the American College of Physicians member directory for FACP credential verification.
Q: What sets these three apart from the broader Nashville internal medicine field?
A: ABIM internal medicine certification is the threshold credential, and each physician above holds it. Past the board, the practical separators for adult primary care are panel size discipline (capping the practice rather than running 2,500-patient panels that erode access), FACP fellowship status as a marker of continued professional engagement, and in-office workup depth (EKG, spirometry, ambulatory blood-pressure monitoring, joint injections) that keeps routine workup inside the office rather than spawning referrals for everything past a basic visit.
Q: Are any of the three practices paid placements?
A: No. The three profiles above are editorial selections drawn from publicly verifiable sources. No practice sponsored placement.
Q: How should I prepare for a first appointment?
A: Confirm in-network status with your insurer, bring photo ID and a list of current medications, and request the practice’s published new-patient intake forms in advance to streamline the first visit.
Editorial Note #
This guide was published on 2026-05-11 and reflects research current as of that date. Verify licenses, phone numbers, and current business status before engaging any firm.