Importance of Having a Primary Care Provider
Listen to Sarah Taylor, DO on our podcast Memorial Health Radio in the new episode titled Importance of having a primary care provider.
Transcription
Melanie Cole (Host): We would never hesitate to take our kids to the pediatrician for their well visit, however as adults we might not think to visit a doctor every year. My guest is Dr. Sarah Taylor. She’s a family medicine physician at Memorial Health System. Dr. Taylor, what are some of the most important reasons to have an internist, a primary care provider, somebody who gets to know you pretty well and can help you out with whatever it is you need?
Dr. Sarah Taylor, DO (Guest): Well thank you, that’s a great question. I do think that most people think of having a regular doctor in case of getting sick, or having a certain concern come up and they need to make sure that they get it checked out and see what’s going on, and this is a lot of what we do from day-to-day. We are able to even discuss or see things that people might consider going to the emergency room or an Urgent Care for thinking that maybe they can’t get into their primary care doctor, but we do know you better typically. So it is nice to try to get in to your regular doctor for any little thing you might need, any question you might have.
Now certainly the other thing that sometimes people forget about is just going in to make sure you’re in pretty good health from top to bottom. This is especially important with people as they get to the age where there is an increase in cancer risk, and so you may need to be evaluated for cancer screenings. It’s also very important as things like obesity, which has become much more common, can come along with many other medical issues, even at a young age. And so we need to screen for these as well.
Luckily if you screen early enough for things, even like diabetes, hypertension, and you treat them early enough, there’s a good chance that you will reduce a lot of the long-term issues that you have because of the diseases. So having a good relationship with your primary care provider will certainly be one of the most important relationships you can have, especially in the medical world.
Melanie: So we’ve all heard that you get a referral to a cardiologist, or you get a referral for GI for your colonoscopy. You know, maybe you find that perfect pediatrician, but finding an internist, a primary care provider, somebody who as you say gets to know you a little bit better and can help you with those yearly screenings and advice, how do you find one? What are some questions that you want patients to ask when searching for that perfect provider?
Dr. Taylor: Well unfortunately in primary care there is a massive shortage going on across the country. And so it used to be primary care doctors made up 70% of the physicians out there and specialists made up 30%, but now that number has almost completely reversed and oftentimes people will end up calling several different physicians before they find someone that’s even accepting new patients, and this can be very frustrating.
At our hospital, we actually have a hotline that directs you to like a care center that is able to try to connect you very quickly to a primary care physician. Some of the things that I think matter when you’re considering someone will vary from person to person. Personally I want someone that is up to date on general medical knowledge and understanding. I want someone that’s willing to give me tough love to tell me when maybe I shouldn’t be on certain medications that could be harming me, or when I should be making better life choices, and someone that really is willing to listen and to meet patients where they are to give the best advice they can on living their healthiest life. And I think that’s not always easy to see when you look at online reviews of doctors and those kinds of things.
Having a little bit of even word of mouth can help. If someone has a great experience, there’s a good chance that this is a doctor that at least will listen even if they don’t necessarily give you everything you want. So that’s a good place to start.
Melanie: So when we’re asking those questions, are you doctors offended if we ask about your training, or your patient retention rate, or how easy it is to get in to see you, or even what tests you run at that annual physical? Are you a practice that takes EKG, or tests vitamin D levels? Do you get offended when we ask these questions, or should we be asking them?
Dr. Taylor: I think that there are some things that are helpful when you look at doctors that keep a little bit of space open from day to day in case you need them, so how quickly can you get in if you’re sick, that is very important considering how costly going other places such as the emergency room can be, and accessibility to a physician, which this is something you can find out even before you ever make an appointment. The office itself should really know, ‘Do we try to make accommodations?’
Things like what is available in the offices, that may be important. It probably depends on what type of procedures or concerns you have, and if you don’t mind going down the hall to get all of the same kind of procedures done versus needing everything done right in the office. I don’t think most doctors are offended by most questions, even training, all of this can matter. It really can be most important, I would say though, to develop a good relationship with your physician.
Melanie: Well you definitely want somebody that understands you, that you feel you can trust, because if you can’t trust your primary care provider, you may not be telling them the truth, you may not be telling them everything that you want them to know. So I think that that’s really an important point.
And where do you think telemedicine fits into this picture? Do you see, in your opinion, that this might be something that’s coming down the pike in the future for primary care providers to be able to provide a service such as this?
Dr. Taylor: I have been involved in some of those services before in more rural communities typically, and typically more in specialist services. So if there’s no specialist around that does a specific thing, and patients can access one through telemedicine, and then the primary care typically where I previously have dealt with this would then help to keep continuity with the care and the recommendations.
I do know of a lot of services now that are basically you can get your smartphone, and smartphone camera, and sign up to be in a waiting room of an office, and log in, and look at someone over the computer to help to make decisions and diagnoses or for simple follow-up, and I think that sounds great. I mean personally, if I don’t have to take three hours out of my day to make an appointment and go somewhere and do something, and it can be taken care of in five minutes in my office, it sounds great.
Now so far technologically I think it still has limits certainly, depending on what the issues are, but there are plenty of types of visits at this point, especially ones that are more educational that are probably reasonable to do through telemedicine.
Melanie: What would you like the listeners to know about a primary care provider and those annual visits? What is it you feel most important that people check? You mentioned diabetes or heart disease. When you do a physical, what can people expect? What is it like?
Dr. Taylor: For the most part, a physical has changed a little compared to what it used to be, and that can be related to a lot of variation now in some recommendations for certain types of screenings. Is it necessary to do these types of invasive exams or not? Like there’s a lot of newer controversies.
For the most part, a yearly basic head-to-toe check and really a risk factor screening is the most important part to see do you have issues that really we are not finding, or untreated. And so for women’s health, for example, at some point that may mean a little bit more invasive gynecologic exam, mammogram screening, or for children a lot of times it is more about growth and development. For more elderly, sometimes it’s really about looking to see, “Are you at risk of falling? Are you on so many medications that it’s causing potential complications?” So it depends a little bit, certainly for the person that comes in. Most healthy young people need very little in terms of screening, but it can be still helpful to come in regularly to make sure you can get that done.
Melanie: Wrap it up for us with your best advice on choosing a primary care provider, and the importance of having someone that you can trust and look to, should you ever need it.
Dr. Taylor: Yes, I mean obviously I believe that having a primary care doctor can reduce a lot of medical cost, a lot of extra stress on a person, and can help direct you in the right ways of your health and prevention. Finding somebody that you trust, that you work well with, that has a good medical knowledge background, and whose office is very amenable to your needs, and trying to work you in are extremely important. So I recommend if you don’t feel like you have that kind of situation, to keep looking, and hopefully you will get to that point.
Melanie: Thank you so much for sharing your expertise with us today on this really important topic for listeners. Thanks for being with us. You’re listening to Memorial Health Radio with Memorial Health System. For more information please visit www.MHSystem.org. That’s www.MHSystem.org. This is Melanie Cole, thank you so much for listening.
