Most people misunderstand what constitutes really good primary care. We can slow the aging process with appropriate life style and behaviors as discussed in my last post. That is good but it is not enough.
Most people misunderstand what constitutes really good primary care. We can slow the aging process with appropriate life style and behaviors as discussed in my last post. That is good but it is not enough. As we age it’s also important to have comprehensive primary care. The usual expectation is that primary care is just for the “simple stuff” or for episodic care when we have a problem but that is a gross misunderstanding.
The key requirements of comprehensive primary care include some basics – a well-educated, well-trained, up-to-date PCP who is committed to relationship-based care and uses a proactive team-based approach. But the second key ingredient is time– time to listen, to think, to diagnose and to treat and to prevent. Unfortunately most primary care physicians just do not have enough time today and the result is a tendency to refer to specialists. But with that time, they could have dealt with the problem themselves.