If you’re relatively healthy, finding a designated primary care provider may not be your top priority. After all, you can head to your nearest urgent care office when you’re sick or hurt, and your local pharmacy offers annual flu shots and COVID boosters.
But health isn’t a static state, and yours can be compromised at any time by many factors, ranging from illness and injury to stress and advancing age. Securing a primary care provider today is an important step toward protecting your health tomorrow.
Heather Kennedy, PA-C, and our team at Refine Medical want you to know that good health isn’t just an abstract concept — it’s a dedicated practice built on regular primary care visits with a provider you know and trust. Here’s why that’s so important.
Primary care medicine is your strongest line of defense against acute illness as well as chronic disease. By offering as-needed sick visits, comprehensive annual physicals, and recommended preventive screenings, your primary care provider is your primary partner in health.
But safeguarding your health is just one side of the primary care equation. The other side? Giving you the insight, guidance, and tools you need to stay healthy through the various stages of your life. The primary care “prevention-action” equation promotes and supports optimal wellness.
Scheduling an annual checkup with your primary care provider helps you attain a detailed “snapshot” of your health that captures a specific moment in time. This comprehensive exam provides insight about important aspects of your health (both known and unknown), and helps you establish a personal health baseline over time.
Starting with your first physical, each annual checkup helps you monitor — and stay on top of — your health. Your health baseline helps your primary care provider spot worrisome trends faster (like consistent weight gain or elevated blood glucose levels), so you can take action to address them before they become serious risk factors for chronic disease.
Your annual physical is further tailored to your health needs based on the preventive screening guidelines for your age and gender, health status and lifestyle, and medical and family history. After all, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
To that end, your primary care provider conducts routine screenings to help you measure your major health indicators (i.e., blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood lipid levels). This may be done in conjunction with a chronic disease risk assessment that aims to:
Your provider also lets you know when you’re due for routine immunizations (i.e., tetanus booster) as well as age or gender-specific preventive screenings such as bone density testing or breast, cervical, colon, or prostate cancer screenings.
You know you can head to your local urgent care when you’re feeling under the weather or you’ve sustained a minor injury, but it always feels better to be seen by your primary care provider when you have a pressing acute health need.
Why? Your primary care provider knows your health history and can deliver prompt care that’s tailored to your individual needs. From helping you address chronic urinary tract infections (UTIs) to ensuring your treatment plan for a respiratory infection also helps keep your asthma under control, your primary care provider is better positioned to offer fully individualized care for acute medical problems.
Health care doesn’t always begin and end with your primary care provider — sometimes, you need coordinated care from one or more specialists from across various segments of the broader health care system.
Your primary care provider serves as your main point of access to a wide range of medical experts that specialize in specific health care needs, ranging from orthopedic surgeons to oncology doctors, maternal fetal medicine specialists, psychiatrists, and more.
When you build a relationship with a primary care provider, you gain access to the insight, guidance, resources, and tools you need to effectively engage in your own care.
Laying the foundation for a solid wellness routine means learning how to cultivate healthier lifestyle habits: From increased physical activity and healthier eating to weight loss, improved sleep hygiene, and better stress management, your primary care provider is here to support every aspect of your well-being.
Looking for a primary care provider? Call or click online to schedule a visit with the health experts at Refine Medical in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, today.