Many times, when we are asked where we go in a medical emergency, there is no answer. This is mainly because of two reasons. First, we have not been that kind of sick or hit by a car on a busy road. The second possible reason could be based on being lucky enough not to even see such a thing in life where a person had to rush to a nearby primary care health facility center.
Either way, in such cases where people are extremely lucky, they might need to get familiar with the concept of “primary care,” how to look for “primary care near me,” and even the answer to the most commonly asked question, “what does primary care provider mean.”
If you are one of those, who would want to know the answers and notion of all that is mentioned above. Guess what! This blog is meant for you.
However, before we delve into the topics, let’s check what is covered in this blog post.
Table of Contents
Introduction: Importance and Meaning of Primary Care Provider
Types of Primary Care Physicians
Role of Primary Care & Services Rendered by Best Doctors
Takeaways: What Exactly is Primary Care?
Introduction: Importance and Meaning of Primary Care Provider
Before going into the depth of the topic, “What exactly is primary care?” let’s understand the answer to the most frequently asked question – What does primary care provider mean?
See, in layman's language, primary care provider means a medical professional (the general physician). He is the person you get to see first thing in the hospital or clinic. Since he is the first one, the list of responsibilities and duties is quite long. Interestingly, a primary care provider is not found in emergency rooms. This doctor is for those individuals who have minor health concerns.
Fun Fact: Chronic or complicated health issues are dealt with by experts who have studied particular health concerns of a particular organ. They are called “specialists” or “subspecialists” in the medical field.
Coming back to primary care physicians are usually categorized as GPs (general physicians), primary care doctors, primary care physicians, local doctors, or primary care practitioners. Regardless of what they are called, these professionals are extremely important for several reasons (we have explained it in detail later in this blog).
Types of Primary Care Physicians
As you are now aware of the answer to “what does primary care provider mean,” let’s figure out the types of these doctors.
Note: In total, there are ten primary care doctors but here we have explained three main ones.
Type #1: Family Doctors, aka Family Physicians
Who are family doctors and why are they categorized under primary care physicians? Well, since family physicians take charge of all that a primary doctor provides, they are typically classified in primary care. However, there is a difference between family doctors and other types of primary care physicians.
Difference: Family doctors focus on every aspect of the illness and disease – diagnosis, treatment, and preventive measures to avoid disease relapse. The age group family doctors look after is extremely diverse – literally, they are for everyone – infants, teenagers, young adults, middle-aged individuals, and even senior citizens of the country.
Responsibilities: Family physicians are not just about three areas of bringing a patient back to normal health. They also handle and deal with counseling, disease awareness, and health maintenance. Interestingly, family doctors take all types of cases in collaboration with specialists. It means they are good for both chronic and critical diseases.
Type #2: Internists
Diseases, illnesses, and other health conditions that are catered by internists (who happen to be called “internal medicine doctors”) put emphasis on adult health and their concerns.
Difference: They, unlike GPs or family doctors, look into young adults as well as middle and senior adults. It clearly means individuals who are in the early phase of adulthood, all those who are somewhat in the middle group of adults, or above 60-year-old – all are handled and treated by internists.
Responsibilities: All three areas are covered by the internists – diagnosis of the health concern, treatment of the disease, and preventive care. They also tend to perform professional jobs by presenting themselves as consultants to other doctors (specialists) to give the utmost and wholesome care to the patients.
Type #3: General Physician (GP)
These are the primary care doctors without any particular specialization or advanced training in a particular disease or organ. Instead, these doctors are best in quite a few tasks – all of which are extremely crucial in the diagnosis and treatment. In the true sense, if you ask what does primary care provider means, GP comes as the most accurate answer. Why do we say so? Well, it is pretty simple and logical. See, the person who you see as a patient in a hospital is always a general physician or GP.
Difference: The main difference between a GP with any other doctor depends on the cases of a patient he takes, right? So, when GP comes into action, he is that guy in primary care in Rancho Mirage, Coachella, or any other neighborhood who provides basic assistance. General physicians are good for the responsibilities given to them, but they can’t take any decision to cure or treat chronic illnesses. However, to say they can’t treat or diagnose common infections and routine health conditions would negate the definition of a GP.
Responsibilities: So, what does a good general physician do? Well, a GP has the power of a doctor because he has completed a degree in medicine. Some of the responsibilities given to a GP include regular checkups, diagnosis, and treatment of common health issues. Also, they are responsible for designing a preventive care strategy.
Role of Primary Care & Services Rendered by Best Doctors
Are you looking for primary care in Coachella or Rancho Mirage? Do you belong to any other neighborhood or state? Well, it doesn’t even matter because the services rendered by a primary care practitioner are the same all over the US. Below, we have mentioned some of the main ones, though, which gives an idea about how exactly primary care near me and you can help us.
Service #1: Managing, Maintaining, and Avoiding Common Health Relapses
To understand what is meant by managing and maintaining common health problems, we need to determine the types of illnesses included in this category. Well, no doctor in the world can manage or maintain health conditions without diagnosing them. Once the ruling has been drawn out and there is a conclusion of the illness (that which illness one has), it becomes easy to treat and manage. Secondly, it goes without saying that common health concerns are typically those that a doctor can see (physical ones). But it is not so. Illnesses that are way too common to treat or manage also have the unseen ones – mental health conditions and disorders. For example, a primary care doctor takes care of ongoing management of illnesses. It may include flu, infections, allergies, blood pressure concerns, diabetes, depression, anxiety, and Alzheimer’s.
PS: It, at times, takes psychiatrists, specialists, and internists to come forward to help patients.
Service #2: Prevention is Better than Cure: Preventive Care
Managing is very different from than prevention of a disease. When primary care near you and I work on the strategies to take patients off the medications and ongoing treatment, they need to be more vigilant. It is so that the illness doesn’t bounce back or relapse. To prevent any health concern (trivial, common, complicated, or life-threatening), primary care doctors schedule routine checkups, screenings, blood work, and other health examinations. All of these constitute not only in detecting health issues in advance. It is also about designing ways through which it becomes easier for the patient to lower the risk of relapsing or introducing new diseases.
Service #3: Dealing with Patients with Chronic Illnesses
What else is included in the answer to “what does primary care provider mean?” Well, other than all that is explained above, a good primary care provider will always look into health matters analytically to assess whether the chronic illness is life-threatening or long-lived. It relies on the doctor to determine if the disease will end up taking the life of a person or will stay forever, but if managed, it can let the patient live. Likewise, primary care in Coachella and other places serves as the doctor who can give holistic services to common health problems as well as acute ones.
Service #4: Fostering Patients with Health Awareness in Communities
MDs and other primary care doctors look into details and ways to bring awareness in the communities. They are the ones who like to address and perform social health and welfare to the people. For example, what they do is to increase awareness of breast cancer in the month of October, and mental health familiarity in the month of May and November has more to do with lung cancer and diabetes. Also, they aim to promote good lifestyles and healthy life patterns and encourage people to live a proactive life through attending health management programs.
Takeaways: What Exactly is Primary Care?
All in all, a primary care provider is the person who treats, diagnoses and prevents patients from all types of illnesses. However, there are specialists who come under the primary care category. Some of them include internists, general physicians, and family doctors. There are quite a few services, responsibilities, and dissimilarities among primary care doctors – all of which are mentioned in this blog. If you need to find “primary care near me” and you are in Rancho Mirage or Coachella, please visit Indus Medical Associates. This hospital caters to adult problems in both common and acute domains