Primary care = ?

[bobby_chamo]

What does "primary care" mean?

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[skypilot]

Primary care is the first doctor that you see when you are sick. The general doctor that is not a specialist.

Generally that means someone who has done a residency in internal medicine, family practice, or pediatrics and has not done a fellowship to subspecialize or at least is not practicing on you as a specialist.

 

[ewing]

Psychiatry and OB/Gyn are also sometimes considered primary care.

 

[twaspatz]

As is Emer. med

 

[Heal&Teach]

Primary care physicians are the first point of contact for patients entering the health care system. It typically includes not only diagnosis & treatment, but disease prevention, health promotion, and patient education. Primary care involves coordinated health care services to deliver the most effective service possible to the patient, making considerations of the environmental, social and cultural elements that may affect a patient's well-being.

 

[LUBDUBB]

I would say,

Primary care = Internal med, peds, Family practice.

Surgical primary care = obgyn, ent, ophthalmology

support specialties = Emergency med, radiology, anesthesiology

correct me if i'm wrong.

 

[skypilot]

Primary care sounds great. So noble, so important. Why is it that everyone starts out being interested in primary care and then as the years go by in med school they become less and less interested until by the time they graduate they want to become an Anesthesiologist?!

 

[Zweihander]

Originally posted by skypilot
Primary care sounds great. So noble, so important. Why is it that everyone starts out being interested in primary care and then as the years go by in med school they become less and less interested until by the time they graduate they want to become an Anesthesiologist?!

'Cause being dedicated enough to go into primary care becomes a heck of a lot harder when you realize how much money you owe, what you'll actually be making, and the fact that insurance companies have a greater say over how you practice and what treatments you can offer than you yourself do. Sad but true...

 

[ink]

I was reading a book "Life after Medical School."

One family doctor says, "Think twice before considering primary care, unless you are independently wealthy."

I am not weathy. I never was, and I never will. I am going into primary care.

 

[Aptamer]

Here's an article from the JAMA from a few years back. It explains what a PCP does...or at least in this article, what they do now and what they should do.