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What Is Family Medicine?
With so many different types of doctors, it can feel overwhelming when trying to discern the difference between each. However, selecting the right kind of doctor for your needs is essential to achieving and maintaining long-term health. Therefore, taking the time to learn about every type of physician and their associated scope of care is a task worth doing.
Family medicine refers to the medical specialty that provides medical care for individuals and their families. It offers comprehensive care through biological, clinical, and behavioral sciences. The scope of family medicine is encompassing because it is built around a unit—the family, instead of a single individual. This specialty also has a broad spectrum as family medicine encompasses all ages and genders, as well as each organ system and disease.
What Is Special About Family Medicine?
During the mid-1960s, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported a growing need for doctors with the skills and knowledge to treat patients throughout their entire life span rather than through a specific phase, such as in pediatrics or internal medicine. In addition, the WHO organization stressed the importance of physicians having expertise in multiple organ systems and diseases instead of just a few.
What followed was the rise of residency training programs specifically designed to prepare physicians for the practice of family medicine. Family medicine practitioners undergo rigorous training that incorporates other medical specialties, including internal medicine, pediatrics , obstetrics and gynecology, surgery , and psychiatry.
Why Is It Important to Have a Family Practice Physician?
They can enter your life at any stage, regardless of your age, and grow with you. Scientific studies have shown that data suggests individuals who see a doctor for an extended period of time have less risk of early death. Therefore, having a physician that can grow with you could result in a longer life span.
In addition, in opposition to what occurs with decentralized periodic care, family doctors provide customized, personal care, where your health and medical needs are tailored to and balanced with your life situation, family, culture, and personal goals.
It is through this long-term relationship with you and your family that your family physician is able to render the most significant degree of care, thus supporting you in achieving your best possible health.
3 Key Benefits of Having a Family Doctor
- They can help you start and grow your family by providing medical advice, fertility information and support (if needed), and practical child-rearing tips like newborn sleep support tactics and more. Many patients are surprised at the practical advice family physicians offer and the resources they can provide to parents around topics like toilet training, school readiness, child independence, and others.
- They can save you money by reducing illness through preventative care , lowering the need for costly emergency room visits through continued care, and recommending the most cost-effective prescriptions for both you and your entire family. Additionally, given their broad range of knowledge, you and your family will be less likely to need the care of a specialist.
- They can support your mental health in addition to your physical health. Since family doctors have visibility into your broader family, they are in a better position than internal medicine physicians or other specialists to both notice and treat mental health issues such as anxiety and stress.
How to Select a Family Medicine Provider
Selecting a family medicine provider is a very important and personal decision. Making sure your family stays healthy is a full-time job and is often difficult to do with a busy schedule; therefore, it is vital to determine if a provider’s services will fit your family’s needs. Once you have a few names of physicians, contact their offices to gather some key information that can help you narrow down your list of which physicians to interview as potential long-term health partners.
Ask the office of each provider the following questions to gather a deeper insight into how patient visits and support are managed:
- Are they accepting new patients?
- Will they accept your insurance?
- What are their office hours?
- Do you allow walk-in visits?
- Do they have someone on-call during off hours?
- How far out is the average wait time to book and see the doctor?
- Where does the doctor have hospital privileges?
- Do they have access to onsite labs and imaging?
Family physicians adhere to the highest standards of health care. They train for years in actual practice settings such as practitioners’ offices and hospitals. They are also required to continually educate themselves, resulting in the highest degree of patient care.
Family Physician Near Me-Denver
The staff at Colorado Primary Health Care is devoted to delivering comprehensive health care for people of all ages. Our team works hard to stay attuned to your family’s needs through continuing care services designed with both the individual patient and their family in mind. Forging close relationships with our patients is at the core of what we do.
We provide a wide range of medical treatments and services, including onsite imaging, to provide the highest level of convenience to our patients.
Our office is in Littleton on West Dry Creek Circle near West Fremont Avenue and South Broadway. Our location allows us to conveniently serve the areas of Littleton, Ken Caryl, Columbine, Bow Mar, Englewood, Southglenn, Greenwood Village, Castlewood, and Northridge.
If you are looking for a family medicine provider offering full-service medical care in the Greater Denver area, please get in touch with our office at (303) 703-8583 or book an appointment using our online form.
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