Your Primary Care Physician Knows You Best

Dr. Andy Fine reiterates that it is important to establish regular visits with your primary care physician. According to him, it is more important than ever to choose your primary care physician to give you the right care at the right time. He notes that research shows there is clear evidence that having an ongoing regular relationship with a primary care physician, is a great advantage in being able to treat a patient\’s symptoms better and more efficiently.

The physician evaluating the symptoms needs to be able to consider your whole medical history and what other medications you might be on. The primary care physician will be able to provide a comprehensive evaluation and better care. Dr. Fine recommends that you visit your primary care physician if you have multiple symptoms like being tired or having a cough and being out of breath, especially if it has been going on for more than a week.

Your primary care physician can get to the bottom of the infection as opposed to being quickly prescribed an antibiotic at the urgent care. Urgent care centers are not equipped to look at the underlying causes. They are designed to deal with one urgent quick problem rather than  to treat either recurrent, chronic or more complicated symptoms.

In addition, visiting your primary care physician is less expensive. Dr. Fines says that this is the reason why there\’s a push across the country for establishing relationships with a primary care physician. This ensures that you have a place to go to when you have a problem. The physician, who is already familiar with you, will ensure that the right investigative testing is ordered if needed.  This is different from an urgent care visit in that, there is a potential for over ordering of expensive tests that might happen, as there is no access to patient history.

Dr. Fine reminds patients that their primary care physician is the only one who can coordinate all their medical problems, and screen for any potential medical issues. Primary care physicians can also coordinate any additional specialist care. They can provide comprehensive patient knowledge to specialists to ensure that medications are prescribed while keeping in mind the other medications a patient may already be taking.

Call us to schedule an appointment for any of your symptoms.