Short Communication - (2022) Volume 30, Issue 7
Received: 28-Jun-2022, Manuscript No. IPQPC-22-14130; Editor assigned: 30-Jun-2022, Pre QC No. IPQPC-22-14130 (Qc); Reviewed: 14-Jul-2022, QC No. IPQPC-22-14130; Revised: 19-Jul-2022, Manuscript No. IPQPC-22-14130 (R); Published: 28-Jul-2022, DOI: 10.36648/1479-1064.22.30.63
A general practitioner (PCP) is a physician who provides both the first point of contact for someone with an undiagnosed medical condition and ongoing care for various conditions, regardless of cause, organ system, or diagnosis. To become a general practitioner, medical graduates undergo postgraduate training in primary care programs, such as family medicine (also called family practice or family practice in some countries), pediatrics, or internal medicine. Some HMOs consider gynecologists to be PCPs for women’s care and have allowed some subspecialists to take PCP responsibilities for selected types of patients, such as allergists who care for people with asthma and nephrologists who serve as PCPs for patients in kidney dialysis. Emergency physicians are sometimes referred to as general practitioners.
Emergency physicians see many cases in primary care, but unlike primary care physicians, pediatricians, and internists, they are trained and organized to focus on episodic care, acute intervention, stabilization, and discharge. A range of skills and areas of practice can define a general practitioner, which usually involves the diagnosis and basic treatment of common illnesses and conditions [1]. Diagnostic techniques involve interviewing the patient to gather information about present symptoms, history, and other health details, followed by a physical examination. Many GPs are trained in basic medical tests, such as B. in interpreting results from blood samples or other patient samples, electrocardiograms, or X-rays [2]. More complex and time-consuming diagnostic procedures are usually accomplished by referral to specialists, with specialized training in a technology, or increased experience and patient traffic that makes a risky procedure safer for the patient. After collecting the data, the PCP makes a differential diagnosis and, with the patient’s cooperation, develops a plan that includes (if applicable) elements of further investigation, specialist referral, medication, therapy, dietary or lifestyle changes, patient education and follow-up treatment results. Family doctors advise and educate patients on safe health behaviours, self-care skills and treatment options, and offer screening tests and immunizations. A recent survey in the United States found that 45% of primary care physicians were contractually obligated not to inform patients when moving to another practice [3]. This is a problem in rural areas that can prohibit doctors from starting new or competing practices in areas where doctors are scarce. A primary care physician is usually the first physician a patient contacts due to factors such as ease of communication, accessible location, familiarity, and growing problems with the costs and requirements of managed care. In many countries, residents are registered as patients of a (local) general practitioner and must contact that doctor for referral to another doctor. They act as “gatekeepers”, controlling access to more expensive procedures or specialists. Ideally, the primary care physician acts on behalf of the patient to collaborate with referral specialists, to coordinate the care provided by different organizations such as hospitals or rehabilitation clinics, to serve as a complete repository for patient records, and to provide management to long term of chronic condition [4]. Ongoing care is especially important for patients with medical conditions that involve multiple organ systems and require long-term treatment and monitoring, such as diabetes and hypertension.
Spreading information to generalists versus specialists is complicated. Two studies found that specialists were more likely to take COX-2 drugs before the drugs were recalled by the FDA. One of the studies goes on to say, “Using COX-2 as a model for physicians to introduce new treatments, specialists were more likely to use these new drugs for patients who might benefit from them, but they were also using them much more often for patients.
The author is grateful to the journal editor and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions.
The author declared no potential conflicts of interest for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
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Citation: De G (2022) Role of Primary Care Physician in Health Care System. Qual Prim Care. 30:41823.
Copyright: © 2022 De G. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
