A primary care provider is your most important partner in health. When you have any sort of unusual symptoms, need vaccines, suffer an injury, need your annual checkup, or need diagnostic testing, a primary care doctor is your go-to physician.
Your primary care provider helps you get treatment for any and all medical conditions and injuries. In situations where they are not qualified to treat you fully for a specific condition, they can refer you to medical specialists.
As such, it is essential that you not only have a primary care provider, but have one who is talented, experienced, and approachable. These qualities can enhance your experience when getting care and can therefore improve your health and well-being drastically.
Let’s talk about what a primary care doctor can do for you, and where you can go in the Midlands for excellent medical care to keep you healthy.
What Does a Primary Care Provider Do?
A primary care physician can provide a broad range of services to patients. As the first point of contact for patients in the medical world, primary care doctors treat most general health issues that people may have. Examples include:
- Cold
- Flu
- Sore throat
- Strep throat
- Infections
- Diarrhea
- Constipation
- Earache
- Minor burns, cuts, and scrapes
- Stomachache
- Headache
- Back pain
- Allergies
- Diabetes
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Weight management
In addition to this, primary care providers offer lifestyle and nutrition guidance to keep patients healthy. They also offer immunizations and vaccines, as well as preventive care services like screenings for certain diseases.
Primary care providers are your source for getting referrals to medical specialists when the need arises. For instance, if you have occasional chest pain and you also have hypertension, your primary care provider will refer you to a good cardiologist. Alternatively, if you have symptoms of thyroid issues, your primary care provider can perform diagnostic testing and then refer you to an endocrinologist.
When you see medical specialists, your primary care provider will work with these other doctors to coordinate your long-term care.
Qualities to Look for in a Primary Care Provider
- Experience – Your primary care doctor should be highly experienced in diagnosing, treating, and preventing all sorts of health conditions and injuries that people typically deal with. Going with an inexperienced doctor may bring the risk of getting subpar or inadequate healthcare.
- Communication Skills – Your primary care doctor should be excellent at communicating with you. They should take the time to get to know you, answer all your questions, and provide a welcoming environment in which you feel comfortable speaking about your health and concerns. You should not go with a doctor who makes you feel rushed or ignored. This can lead to you not sharing all aspects of your health, and so you end up neglecting getting medical care from them when the need arises.
- Accessibility – Your primary care doctor should be easily accessible for you. Some providers have a massive list of patients who must request appointments weeks in advance due to back-to-back appointments scheduled by other patients. Having such a provider can make getting medical care when you need it very difficult. For instance, if you have flu symptoms but can’t get an appointment until several days later, you will have to suffer unnecessarily for days – or visit another provider who doesn’t know you in order to get treated quickly.
Quality Primary Care Providers in Irmo, SC
At SC Internal Medicine Associates & Rehabilitation, we offer a one-stop shop for excellent primary care services for our patients. In our facility, we can provide screenings, diagnostics, treatments, physicals, weight loss programs, and sleep medicine services for all adults. We are leaders in internal medicine, and we have served the Midlands community in South Carolina for over 30 years.
Our doctors are currently accepting new patients! If you have any questions or would like to schedule an appointment, call us today at (803) 749-1111 or fill out our convenient appointment request form. We look forward to being your partner in health!
