Importance of Primary Healthcare

Numerous populations may think of primary care as routine, day-to-day healthcare from a family practice or internal medicine healthcare provider, like other providers such as nurse practitioners or physician assistants. Primary care visit is the first step to preventive care. It is meant for people to be sick or prevent disease exacerbations. It incorporates back-to-school vaccines, bloodwork to check cholesterol and insulin, and counseling on family and lifestyle risk factors.

Further, According to Starfield et al. (2003), primary care helps patients to understand health comorbidities. Healthcare comorbidities varied within each diagnosis; resource use depended on the degree of comorbidity rather than the diagnosis. When stratified by degree of comorbidity, the number of visits for comorbid conditions exceeded that for the index condition in almost all comorbidity groups and visits to both primary care providers and specialists. The number of visits to primary care providers for both the index and comorbid conditions almost invariably exceeded the number of visits to specialists. These patterns differed only for uncommon conditions in which specialists played a more significant role in the care of the condition but not for comorbid conditions.

Primary care is essential to help detect various illnesses. Suppose an individual gets routine exams and screenings. In that case, individuals are more likely to prevent health problems or catch developing diseases early, get treatment sooner, and mitigate problems that need less care overall. Furthermore, a more subtle reason is that when people see a primary care provider regularly, they are more likely to have a relationship with that person. Right or wrong, most people are more willing to listen to someone they know and trust. They are also more likely to be open and honest about lifestyle habits and medical concerns. That is powerful. After all, a provider cannot counsel a patient on his or her options to quit smoking or refer someone to counseling for anxiety if she never knows those concerns exist.

Primary care also helps keep healthcare costs down; research shows that prioritizing primary care delivery in the healthcare system can improve healthcare outcomes and better value to the patients. This is because individuals improve their lifestyle knowledge, become more involved with their health, and mitigate healthcare costs; if a preventive mammogram catches breast cancer early or regular bloodwork helps someone get ahead of diabetes, everyone wins. Managing the costs of care associated with chronic conditions is of primary concern for health systems responding to reform-driven pressures to lower their overall care costs. To be able to contribute meaningfully to discussions of how

best to control these costs.

At The Vice Practice, we offer the widest variety of services in the industry, including extensive primary care options. Our healthcare team is dedicated to member populations and more time to spend with members during each visit, which builds trust. If you are in charge of health at your organization, let us know how access to primary care affects your people. Get in touch – we value your questions and feedback.

For more information regarding Primary Care Health, please visit:

https://www.cdc.gov/apih/wip/primary-care.html

References

Amir, L. (2014). Managing chronic conditions economic analysis can help mitigate costs of diabetic ulcers. Healthcare Financial Management, 68(5), 90-96. https://chamberlain.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUCON_INST/f6kb8f/cdi_proquest_reports_1528474792

Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021). Primary Care and Public Health Initiative. https://www.cdc.gov/apih/wip/primary-care.html

Starfield, B., Lemke, K. W., Bernhardt, T., Foldes, S.S., Forrest, C. B., Weiner, J. P. (2003). Comorbidity: Implications for the importance of primary care in ‘Case’ management. Annals of Family Medicine,1(1), 1-8. https://chamberlain.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01CUCON_INST/f6kb8f/cdi_pubmedcentral_primary_oai_pubmedcentral_nih_gov_1466556