Family Doctor
Adults can choose a family medicine doctor or an internal medicine doctor as their primary care physician. Read this Q&A to help you decide what’s best for you. Your primary care doctor is a key member of your health care team. He or she offers guidance to help you stay well, provides treatment and monitoring when you’re ill, and coordinates your care if you need specialized treatment.
Seeing your family medicine doctor on a regular basis may be even better for your health than you thought. Research shows the comprehensive care they provide can save you money and keep you healthier. People who take advantage of the wide range of services provided by family medicine doctors are less likely to end up in the hospital. They spend less money on health care too, possibly because their family doctor can help them avoid unnecessary or repetitive testing and costly procedures.
Unfortunately, many people aren’t aware how much their family doctor is trained to do.
Believe it or no, A Family Medicine Doctor Is Your Care Coordinator
A family doctor is trained to care for all generations. he treats lacerations and bruised knees, conducts breast exams and pap smears, and also helps people manage chronic concerns like diabetes and high blood pressure. Family doctors are very thorough. The family doctor looks at multiple organ systems, rather than focus on one thing.
What Kinds of Patients a family doctor Sees?
As a family doctor, he ro she sees all types of patients, throughout all different stages of the life cycle. He or she sees infants, children, adolescents, adults, up to end-of-life care. He or she often see members of the same family.
What Types of Care family doctor Provides?
Family physician or doctor provides comprehensive care. The primary focus is on preventive care.
He or she also provides chronic care management, as well as addressing acute issues that come up in between chronic care visits. And he or she performs minor procedures.
What Are the benefits to see a family doctor?
One benefit of a family medicine doctor is that he or she is able to see how relationships between family members impact their health -- for example, couples who are trying to lose weight. The doctor can also connect within different life stages: The doctor has parents and adolescents who are experiencing complicated changes, and being able to understand where each individual is coming from helps the doctor to help them impact their own health. Also, one lovely service the family doctor provides is the assistance with breastfeeding, newborn child care, pediatric vaccinations, and preventive services.
What Kinds of Training Do Family Doctors Receive?
After medical school, family doctors complete a three-year residency that integrates outpatient care -- including community medicine -- and inpatient care. That gives us good exposure to managing diseases in different stages as well as prevention. A large focus is on outpatient care. I also did a lot of training in women’s health and pediatric medicine.
