Your family means everything to you, and you want to ensure your loved ones live long and productive lives. The purpose of family medicine is to focus on creating long-term relationships with patients and their families, while also providing quality, compassionate care for a full range of issues. This includes acute and chronic diseases, preventive care and even mental health. Unlike other specialties that may focus on a specific illness or organ, family medicine specializes in treating the whole person, no matter their age or gender.
Family practitioners help patients remain healthy and free of disease through routine visits, immunizations and screenings. They may provide medical care in a variety of different settings, including at-home care, standard clinics, hospitals and urgent care centers.
From diabetes and heart disease to asthma and physical injuries, the practice of a family practitioner offers patients long-term individualized care to handle their most serious health issues.
What Does a Family Doctor Do?
Some responsibilities of your family physician include:
- Treating and diagnosing a comprehensive range of health issues
- Creating a treatment plan with other health professionals
- Providing health care that focuses on the patient as a whole
- Establishing relationships with patients and their health
- Preventing illness
- Offering up advice and tips for patients to take control of their health
Family physicians offer the care you need to reduce your risk of developing illness. In fact, it has been shown that those with primary health care have better overall health than those who do not. By maintaining an active relationship with your family physician, you can reduce your overall health care costs, while getting the preventive care you need to keep you feeling healthy and happy.