What falls under primary care?

[theunremarkable]

I know family physicians and general practitioners fall under this category but I also assumed that pediatricians and internists would as well. Are they not considered PCPs?

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[spicedmanna]

I know family physicians and general practitioners fall under this category but I also assumed that pediatricians and internists would as well. Are they not considered PCPs?

Primary Care is usually an umbrella term used to encompass the following four specialty fields:

Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, OB/Gyn., and Pediatrics

The use of the term, "general practitioner," isn't that prevalent in the United States anymore, but I suppose it is still used frequently in other countries. The use of the term in the United States is now pretty much restricted to physicians who have completed only the minimum residency requirements, usually one year, for licensure.

 

[LukeWhite]

Primary care is generally restricted to:

Family
Internal
OB/GYN
Pediatrics
Psychiatry (sometimes)
Emergency (rarely)

All except EM are the NHSC primary care specialties.

 

[theunremarkable]

Thank you, I appreciate the responses!

 

[deuist]

I know that ob/gyn often gets listed as a primary care physician, but why? Gyns are surgeons who specialize in lower female pathology. There are internists who specialize in women's health who can perform PAP smears and write scripts for birth control just as well as a gyn can. To top it off, a patient won't have to wait three months for an appointment.

 

[alwaysaangel]

A lot of Primary Care Loan/Scholarship programs don't include OB/gyn. So it really depends what the context is.

 

[doinmybest5840]

I know that ob/gyn often gets listed as a primary care physician, but why? Gyns are surgeons who specialize in lower female pathology. There are internists who specialize in women's health who can perform PAP smears and write scripts for birth control just as well as a gyn can. To top it off, a patient won't have to wait three months for an appointment.

Perhaps because women can see their ob/gyn as their primary doctor rather than also having an internist?

 

[smq123]

Primary care is generally restricted to:

Family
Internal
OB/GYN
Pediatrics
Psychiatry (sometimes)
Emergency (rarely)

All except EM are the NHSC primary care specialties.

I'm pretty sure that the NHSC primary care specialties are Family, Internal, Peds, and Psych - not OB/Gyn. Med/peds might be included in primary care specialties, but I'm not 100% certain.

 

[alwaysaangel]

I know that ob/gyn often gets listed as a primary care physician, but why? Gyns are surgeons who specialize in lower female pathology. There are internists who specialize in women's health who can perform PAP smears and write scripts for birth control just as well as a gyn can. To top it off, a patient won't have to wait three months for an appointment.

During my 4 years of college I never had an internist. All I had was a OB/gyn. For a lot of women they never need anything beyond their annual pap. So they get most of their "preventative" care in the form of their OB/gyn. It makes sense to me that its considered a primary care, but I see your point.

 

[Critical Mass]

If you are having a baby, your OB will probably be reimbursed more like a primary care physician because the office visits and so forth are going to take place at regular intervals. For the purposes of rural care scholarships, OB/Gyn has not been included AFAIK.

In my mind, a primary care physician is the first (i.e. "primary") doctor you go to see when you think something is wrong. (Let's not get off onto a tangent about emergency medicine because some people might include them too.) It is their job to refer out to specialists. There are some specialists that will take self-referral (one of my derms comes to mind), but I think that the majority of "secondary" providers are referred by primary care providers.

 

[LukeWhite]

I'm pretty sure that the NHSC primary care specialties are Family, Internal, Peds, and Psych - not OB/Gyn. Med/peds might be included in primary care specialties, but I'm not 100% certain.

Re ob/gyn: http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/join_us/scholarships.asp

Re med/peds: practically, this is of course primary care since it's not its own specialty; you're dually boarded in two separate primary care specialties. As far as NHSC goes, though, you are not allowed to do a med/peds residency to fulfill your contract.

 

[smq123]

Re ob/gyn: http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/join_us/scholarships.asp

Re med/peds: practically, this is of course primary care since it's not its own specialty; you're dually boarded in two separate primary care specialties. As far as NHSC goes, though, you are not allowed to do a med/peds residency to fulfill your contract.

Thanks for the correction about OB/Gyn.

See, this is what I hate about the NHSC - there's info in a bunch of different places, but it's never consistent. The application brochure for this year definitely says that med/peds as well as med/FP is allowed, which is what I recalled. The website says differently, though.

Then again, they suddenly got rid of the interview requirement this year too, so I probably shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Davjc2009]

Re ob/gyn: http://nhsc.bhpr.hrsa.gov/join_us/scholarships.asp

Re med/peds: practically, this is of course primary care since it's not its own specialty; you're dually boarded in two separate primary care specialties. As far as NHSC goes, though, you are not allowed to do a med/peds residency to fulfill your contract.

How much say do you get in to where you are placed after residency in these sort of programs?

 

[Orthodoc40]

Primary care is generally restricted to:

Family
Internal
OB/GYN
Pediatrics
Psychiatry (sometimes)
Emergency (rarely)

All except EM are the NHSC primary care specialties.

Just remember that Internal Medicine accounts for a LOT of subspecialties, right? Such as cardiology, oncology, hematology, allergy & pulmonology...

Anyone want to list them? Kuba, are you around?

 

[DrBowtie]

Just remember that Internal Medicine accounts for a LOT of subspecialties, right? Such as cardiology, oncology, hematology, allergy & pulmonology...

Anyone want to list them? Kuba, are you around?

But only general internal medicine is primary care.
If you do a fellowship, you aren't primary care.

 

[Orthodoc40]

Right but from out of med school, you went into a primary care residency.

Here's the list Kuba put together (I don't know how accurate it is for years):

Allergy and Immunology: 2 years
Cardiology: 3 years
Cardiology/Cardiac Electrophysiology: 4 years
Cardiology/Interventional Cardiology: 4 years
Critical Care Medicine: 2 years
Endocrinology: 2 years
Geriatric Medicine: 2 years
Gastroenterology: 3 years
Gastroenterology/Hepatology: 4 years
Hematology: 2 years
Hematology/Oncology: 3 years
Infectious Diseases: 2 years
Medical Genetics: 2-4 years
Nephrology: 2 years
Oncology: 2 years
Pulmonary: 2 years
Pulmonary/Critical Care: 3 years
Rheumatology: 2 years
Sports Medicine: 1 year

 

[Davjc2009]

Right but from out of med school, you went into a primary care residency.

Here's the list Kuba put together (I don't know how accurate it is for years):

Allergy and Immunology: 2 years
Cardiology: 3 years
Cardiology/Cardiac Electrophysiology: 4 years
Cardiology/Interventional Cardiology: 4 years
Critical Care Medicine: 2 years
Endocrinology: 2 years
Geriatric Medicine: 2 years
Gastroenterology: 3 years
Gastroenterology/Hepatology: 4 years
Hematology: 2 years
Hematology/Oncology: 3 years
Infectious Diseases: 2 years
Medical Genetics: 2-4 years
Nephrology: 2 years
Oncology: 2 years
Pulmonary: 2 years
Pulmonary/Critical Care: 3 years
Rheumatology: 2 years
Sports Medicine: 1 year

These are all fellowships, meaning you have to do IM residency first....

 

[LukeWhite]

Just remember that Internal Medicine accounts for a LOT of subspecialties, right? Such as cardiology, oncology, hematology, allergy & pulmonology...

Anyone want to list them? Kuba, are you around?

You do have to fulfill your commitment first, but then are of course free to go back and specialize.

I interviewed twice for the scholarship and was rejected both times. This was when I was certain I wanted to do family med, and I was crushed. Then I found out that critical care is where it's at, and am thrilled I wasn't accepted. But if I had gotten the scholarship, it'd be easy to get back on the specialist track.