Primary care providers are essential for every individual and family. They can oversee healthcare needs for your whole family; providing preventive care and offering advice on your family’s overall health maintenance. Primary care providers are trained to treat multiple health conditions, provide accurate and tailored diagnoses, and keep a close and long working relationship with you and your family members. This working relationship can help them monitor your family’s health history and allow them to respond appropriately to any inquiry.
In this article, we will share with you four important benefits of having a family primary care provider:
Benefit #1: You’ll have them for life
Primary care providers include medical doctors (MDs), doctors of osteopathy (DOs), naturopathic doctors (NDs), nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs). They are equipped to treat people of virtually all ages. From early childhood all the way to late adulthood, primary care providers can treat a variety of common health conditions and typically play a key role in your family’s basic health care. They offer urgent care services in addition to basic procedures, preventative care and disease diagnosis and management.
Primary care providers often see their patients for years to decades, providing an opportunity for a lasting professional relationship between the patient and provider. This lasting provider-patient relationship provides them with a wealth of information regarding your overall health.
Benefit #2: They have a working knowledge of your personal and family history
Primary care providers who treat you for years have information about your overall medical history, providing them with the necessary knowledge needed to make more accurate diagnoses and supervise your personal health.
Other than that, primary care providers also can keep a record of your family’s health history. They can keep track of diseases that can be passed on genetically and provide a screening plan for the family members who are at risk of developing certain health conditions. Beyond this, they can also analyze family dynamics to help them assess specific milestones and changes in the family and adapt their treatments and diagnoses accordingly.
Benefit #3: They’re not just general practitioners
Primary care providers focus on preventive care and can treat chronic conditions, such as cardiovascular diseases, asthma, cancer, and diabetes, among others. They can also treat more cases of flu and common colds, provide immunization, offer urgent care services and perform minor surgical operations. They can tailor treatments according to your personal and family health history and track your progress over time.
Benefit #4: They allow you to save on costs
In addition to providing effective healthcare for your family, a wealth of evidence suggests that employing these basic health care providers help you reduce overall healthcare costs. Working with a primary healthcare provider, such as a family physician, can reduce overall hospital admissions, emergency room visits, and the need for surgeries.
Conclusion
Getting a primary care provider is undoubtedly the best way to take care of your family. As you ponder on your decision, remember to carefully consider the benefits discussed above. Health is not a matter to be taken lightly. With so much at stake, getting the right form of healthcare is tantamount, and that includes the possibility of getting your very own primary care providers.
If you’re on the hunt for family doctors in Salem, Oregon, we offer some of the best doctors in the region! We’ll help you take care of your family. Due to the recent risks posed by the COVID-19, however, we’ve switched to telemedicine visits, yet, our service continues. Get in touch with us today to find out how we can help!