Baptist Health partners with new San Marco psychiatric clinic to offer faster mental health access (Courtesy of the Jacksonville Business Journal) — When men in Jacksonville finally reach the point of asking for help with their mental health, Dr. Marek Hirsch doesn’t want them waiting three months for an appointment.
So the chair of psychiatry for Baptist Health’s Northeast Florida network built his own solution.
Last fall, Hirsch opened Men’s Mental Health in San Marco — a private, fast-moving psychiatric clinic designed to cut through long hospital waitlists and meet patients at the moment they’re ready for care. The practice operates out of a 4,140-square-foot, two-story building at 1035 King St., which Hirsch acquired through an LLC for $1.39 million in February 2025.
Hirsch’s clinic is backed by a rare partnership with Baptist Health that connects the small practice directly into the system’s medical records platform, the clinic blends the speed of a startup with the reach of one of the region’s largest health systems — and is already seeing hundreds of patients in its first months of operation.
From February through September, Hirsch was able to use his platform and network to spread the word about Men’s Mental Health. Since opening, Dr. Hirsch and his staff of four board-certified psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioners have recorded more than 400 patient encounters. This includes 198 in the month of January alone.
This is an encouraging beginning for what Hirsch describes as a critical issue, especially for men.
“My primary mission is to ensure a short wait time for an appointment, for a patient at the point where they reach out for psychiatric help,” Hirsch told the Business Journal.
Those patients who wait until a psychiatric crisis to seek mental health care are often men. This is why Hirsch founded the mental health center with men in mind. The San Marco office, for example, features a patient “weight” room that is a literal weight room complete with dumbbells, benches, power rack and weight plates.
Dr. Hirsch and his team do not provide traditional talk therapy. Instead, they serve as psychiatric advisors, working with patients to evaluate treatment options and determine whether medication, therapy or a combination of both may be appropriate. The clinic also prioritizes exercise to support testosterone production, along with nutritional guidance and weight management — factors closely tied to mental health and long-term chronic disease prevention.
Most important, Men’s Mental Health can cut down on the wait time for access to care.
Clinics at large institutions like Baptist and UF Health typically feature wait times of up to three months. This is unacceptable, Hirsch said, and Men’s Mental Health attempts to address that from the opposing position of massive hospitals.
“In a small business, I can be as nimble as possible and make the decisions that implement the processes that are going to be most efficient to ensure quick access to care for patients,” Hirsch said.
The Men’s Mental Health clinical team does its best to make itself available during times most convenient for clients including evenings and weekends.
While Men’s Mental Health can offer a more flexible, accessible schedule, they work in concert (as opposed to in opposition to) the large medical facility. Hirsch and his whole team still work at Baptist Health every other week.
Epic covers roughly 60% of U.S. patients, according to Baptist literature. Access to the Epic records platform through Baptist allows the Men’s Mental Health clinical the same experience as Baptist Health. This connection unlocks advanced clinical tools, streamlined workflows and actionable insights from hospitals across the country to enhance patient care and treatment.
The country’s leading, proprietary electronic health record (EHR) software to manage patient data, Epic is only available to large medical groups like Baptist, UF Health, Mayo and others. Baptist, though, is working to change that and Men’s Mental Health is the first organization that Baptist has selected to enable seamless access through its flagship Community Connect program. This connection is critical to the health center’s patients.
“You don’t have to explain your background, and you don’t have to be responsible for getting it to us,” Hirsch. “And I’m about efficiency. I’m old enough to have been trained in medical organizations that used paper charts and relied on fax machines.”
While Men’s Mental Health continues to grow its patient roster, Baptist will extend its Community Connect program to establish community partnerships and empower patients to enable access to quality health care for people in Jacksonville and across the region.
Hirsch’s office, in fact, is completely paperless. Patients check in with a full-time, third-party service on a video screen. And practitioners meet with clients in custom-made QuietCubes — Australian-made soundproof office pods that can adjust opacity from clear walls to an opaque, clouded enclosure for private consultation.
Here, Men’s Mental Health practitioners can deliver discrete, profession medical direction that’s rooted in a unified network that supports holistic, coordinated care. Together, Baptist Health and Men’s Mental Health elevate a shared mission to achieve healthier communities.
“The leadership at Baptist is truly invested in providing good quality health care to the Jacksonville community,” Hirsch said. “And Baptist is local. You can walk into the cafeteria on any given day and get in line behind the CEO of the hospital system.”
Photo courtesy of Men’s Mental Health in San Marco