Primary care

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List of terms related to Primary care

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Primary care is a term used for the activity of a health care provider who acts as a first point of consultation for all patients. Generally, primary care physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants are based in the community, as opposed to the hospital. Alternative names for the field are "general practice" and "family medicine", although the terms are not synonymous.

General practitioners in the United Kingdom are physicians who have completed four to five years of post-medical school training including three to four years based in hospitals and one year attached to a training general practitioner in the community.

Primary care physicians usually include family practice, internal medicine, pediatrics, and at times OB/GYN physicians. It is important to note, however, that the last three of the above specialties are not technically general medicine specialties. These specialties are primary care, but NOT general medicine.

Continuity of care

See also: Hospital readmission

The importance of continuity of care has been studied in a systematic review.

Continuity of care is also important for after hospitalizations and emergency department visits (see hospital readmission). Follow-up visits after emergency department visits may also be important.

Frequency of visits

Physicians vary widely in their setting revisit intervals.

Shorter revisit intervals is associated with better care of hypertension Aand may be associated with better care of diabetes.

Limitations

Time

There is insufficient time in primary care to address

• Executing preventive care

• Seeking reimbursement for preventive care

Financing

Medicare has created G-codes to support billing for the increasing burden of non-face-to-work to help patients. Examples include:

• CPT codes 99358 and 99359 (Prolonged service without direct patient contact)
• CPT codes 99415 and 99416 (Prolonged clinical staff services)
• CPT code 99417 (Prolonged office/outpatient E/M services with or without direct patient contact).

• HCPCS add-on code G2212 (Prolonged office/outpatient E/M services)

Primary care practices underuse these codes.

Interventions to improve primary care

Interventions to improve primary care via replacement (clinic-based or home-based) or augmentation have been studied.

Consoliding and integrating small practices to larger systems

Primary card practices are shifting to being part of larger systems.

See also

• Secondary care
• Tertiary care
• Quaternary care
• World Organization of Family Doctors (Wonca)
• International Classification of Primary Care (ICPC)
• Health care systems

External links

• Defining Primary Care from Institute of Medicine IOM - Primary Care: America's Health in a New Era (1996)
• Primary Care Definitions from American Academy of Family Physicians AAFP
• Definition of Primary Care from American Medical Association AMA
• Defining primary health care Department of Health United Kingdom UK
• What is primary health care? Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory (AMSANT) Australia

References

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