HEALTH
5 Types of Primary Care Services
When you are sick and go to the hospital, the doctor will usually treat your illness. Sometimes, you may want them to care for you as a person besides treating you, and that is what primary care entails. If you desire such a service, you may consider reaching out to Dr. Andrew Chow.
Primary care is a service offered by generalists. This means they deal with a wide range of physical, psychological, and social problems. Now that we know what primary care is, we can mention all the services in it below.
Patient Education
Patient education attempts to influence patient behavior by providing the necessary knowledge and skills to improve health. Therefore, this service helps patients avoid contracting lifestyle diseases such as heart disease, stroke, obesity, hypertension, and osteoporosis. Your doctor may advise you to stop smoking, drink less alcohol, exercise regularly, or limit your salt intake.
There are various formats that doctors can use to conduct patient education. They may do it via PowerPoint presentations, podcasts, brochures, one-on-one teaching, group classes, or posters.
Health Promotion
This service engages and empowers communities to practice healthy habits. It aims to reduce the development of chronic diseases in a certain region. Health promotion is almost similar to patient education, but the difference is that it does so much more.
Besides educating the masses, it makes an effort to influence policy changes. They may ask the government to add a tax on unhealthy foods or include healthy foods in vending machines. Health promotion can also influence systems change by implementing new technologies or creating certification systems that align with policies.
Diagnosing and Treating Chronic Illnesses
This service is ideal for people who are sick but cannot explain what disease they are suffering from. The best time to seek such help is when the symptoms take a while to disappear. Your doctor will begin by asking you some questions while conducting a physical examination. Where necessary, they may conduct urine or blood tests.
There is no specific time for how long diagnosis and treatment take. Depending on the illness, you may get diagnosed quickly or after a long time. Regardless of how long the process is, you can rest knowing you are in good hands.
Disease Prevention
Disease prevention uses measures to stop a person from contracting an illness. Every person should do what they can to get sick since treatment may be challenging for doctors. A common way doctors conduct this service is through vaccinations.
Besides inoculations, your doctor will urge you to wash your hands often, handle food properly, and stay home when sick.
Counseling
A doctor may counsel a patient before diagnosing their disease. The goal would be to prepare them psychologically to deal with a serious illness. Still, if you have a severe disease, the doctor will counsel you so that you can cope with it.
Also, your physician will counsel you if you adopt unhealthy methods of lowering stress, such as alcoholism. They will guide you on other ways of reducing it.
Conclusion
If you visit the hospital, you better hope for primary care. It is a form of treatment that can save your life. Additionally, you can reduce your visits by taking care of your health. Remember, getting admitted to the hospital is very expensive, which you also want to avoid. Could you imagine saving money to buy a house, only to use it all to settle hospital bills? You can prevent most diseases by taking the right diet and exercising.
Umar Nisar was born and raised in the busy city of Abbottabad. As a journalist, Umar Nisar has contributed to many online publications including PAK Today and the Huffing Post. In regards to academics, Umar Nisar earned a degree in business from the Abbottabad UST, Havelian. Umar Nisar follows the money and covers all aspects of emerging tech here at The Hear Up.
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