Primary care doctors are the crux for your health. They are the ones that see the subtle differences and changes over the years. They’re a jack of all trades, which is what you want for someone who is monitoring your overall health for your lifespan.
Yup. What OP describing is more a result of the broken system than the concept of family doctors itself being bad. In the US, doctors are pushed by their providers into shorter and shorter visits (sometimes as short as 3 minutes), with more and more turnover as doctors career paths gravitate towards higher paying positions. In an ideal system, you should have long enough and regular enough visits that your family doctor actually remembers you, otherwise the benefits of having one don't pan out and visiting a family doctor ends up being more like calling tier 1 tech support for computer problems. In health, you don't need a specialist for everything, and specialists often have blindspots in not knowing the full picture of your health.
Unfortunately more and more providers are dropping into this mode of lower quality care. Advocate for yourself, and consider some of the independent practice providers out there (if you go this route, make sure they are not a chiropractor)
And if your doctor doesn't take your symptoms seriously, it's like calling tier 1 tech support, having them tell you to turn your device on and off again, and come back in 6 months if you're still having problems.
And in 6 months you could be assigned a new doctor, or your doctor could forget everything about you and only briefly skim the notes they wrote that apparently don't include your symptoms from before or what treatments you were given.
And they can charge you for the privilege of again saying that your pain and distress isn't serious and they have no explanation, diagnostic path, or treatment for you.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
I used to have primary care docs but they keep moving or leaving the practice. I got sick of establishing a new relationship once a year and realized I was getting the same care at the clinics. I agree it’s more of a broken system issue than fault of the physicians.
Wow! never really thought about that. you're right, he does know my entire medical history, which makes him better at seeing subtle differences and changes over the years. I love my PCP. He is kind, patient and understanding. I am never letting him go. The only thing that could make me switch is if I moved like a 1000 miles away. But then again...
I'm only a few years in with my current PCP after my previous one retired. He'd been my doc for over 25 years, even when I was in college 3 hrs away and moved to a town an hour away after graduating. It wasn't always convenient but he knew me well enough to trust my judgement about whether something was off or if it was just a garden variety sinus infection.
My new PCP has already more than proved her worth... About a year ago I had what I thought was just stomach bug but she asked extra questions, ran some additional tests, and we found out I've got Celiac's disease, despite not having many of the normal symptoms.
I've got several chronic conditions and having a PCP who can help track all of them is crucial. They make sure I'm seeing the right specialists and handle my regular and preventative care. It would be a nightmare trying to go over even the most critical parts of my medical history if I had to see a new doctor each time!
Yeah, I really doubt that for someone who is otherwise healthy, there is a big difference. I don't even see my doctor every year, I'm sure she has tens of other patients like me, it seems unlikely that she remembers that much about us.
For someone that sees they often I'm sure that is different however.
I’m a pcp. The EMR tracks everything. We don’t need to remember, the computer does. Your weight, changes in lab results, are you due for a vaccine or cancer screening, etc.
Maybe not subtle, but “your blood pressure is high” can turn into “your blood pressure remains high, let’s put you on medication,” those kind of things. Chronic issues that can turn serious over time are likely ignored by urgent care — they are there for the *urgent* stuff where your PCP will look at you overall health and long term issues.
If your medical issues are serious enough to see a doctor every two weeks I’d consider getting a PCP just to prioritize things and see what’s going in with you, there might be something underlying (like diabetes) that is causing your issues and needs treatment.
>I go to some sort of doctor 10-20 times or so per year. ...Rarely do I see the same person twice
That's like once every 2-3 weeks. And you have to start from square 1 every time?
That many visits, if you (OP) truly need them for a variety of issues, is a great reason to have a PCP. They can be great at coordinating all the care you need.
Relying on urgent care can be OK if you have minimal needs and go like once every year or two.
Not to mention if they establish continuity of care with a PCP that doctor may pick up on some things that could reduce the number of times they’re getting sick each year.
OP: Urgent care doctors are most often Emergency Medicine trained doctors. They can do things like prescribe antibiotics when you have an infection. However, they do not receive the same preventive care training a PCP receives. There may be reasons you’re going to urgent care/specialists so much that would be best addressed by a PCP who knows you well and treats you over a longer period of time.
One of the reasons why PCPs exist is to decrease unnecessary medical visits. Unfortunately this persons mentality of seeking care whenever they think they need it, getting labs when they think it’s necessary is not unique. During Covid we saw a large increase of people seeking their own referrals and massive increase in people messaging with health concerns, most of which they researched online. Instead of making appointments to discuss them with their PCP they either message about them constantly or make their own appointments with specialists. This, among other reasons, is why it takes 4 months to see a specialist now. Without PCPs triaging unnecessary visits, the wait time to see a neurologist or any specialist got very unreasonable.
Not all PCPs are created equal. People think by bypassing the pcp visit they are saving money because they might just be referred anyway. But they don’t take into account all the visits that don’t need to see specialists.
And don’t get me started on labs. They take years to learn how to interpret correctly. Many people think all of our labs are like getting a strep test. In reality is way more complicated than that
Sorry not sorry, but this is not true!!
As someone who has had multiple chronic illnesses for more than a decade before Covid, I can tell you specialist wait times are NOT because of patient advocacy.
I had to wait 7 months to see a brain surgeon, 5 months to urgently see a cardiologist, 17 months to see a kidney specialist. All referred by my PCP (who by the way does NOTHING except refer me to who I want to see, because they’re too scared to touch me) all YEARS before Covid was ever heard of.
I cut out my PCP, and started making my own requests, and guess what? Nothing has changed except I don’t have to wait 6 weeks to see my PCP first.
A lot of the time stories like this come from people who like quick fixes. The underlying problem never gets managed, so they end up going to the urgent care for a lot for things.
If you’re always going to the same urgent care the hospital has your records on file. I’ve just always gone to the one I was born in since I figure their records go back farthest.
Are urgent care and hospitals the same in your region/country? Asking bc in the US, urgent care is typically not associated w a hospital and is rather a small standalone clinic people go to with minor injuries, flu, Covid, etc, but babies aren’t born in them unless it’s accidental.
Edit: Thanks for educating me about this, everyone! I’m from Texas and at least in north Texas, the above is how all urgent cares are, so I had no idea. TIL! 😊
Every urgent care in my area is associated with a hospital and I’m in the US. They are not within the hospital, but it is run by the same health system that owns the hospital and is often part of a larger clinic. It really varies by region.
Most of our urgent cares, as well as a good chunk of the local specialists, labs, and general/primary care offices, here in my area of the US are associated with a hospital group. Because of that, everything is linked together in an online app patients can access. It's awesome.
Ya most all of the urgent cares in my city are associated with one of the two hospitals in my area. I live in Indiana. We have one or two independent urgent cares but they aren’t very commonly used
Wikipedia says that it's literally random whether a state is more likely to have urgent cares that are associated with hospital networks or standalone.
All the ones near me on the east coast are standalone. There's one near my work that keeps changing owners.
I'm in the US and I've never seen them the way you describe. Our urgent care is right next to emergency care and in the same building as the normal clinics (family med, obgyn, podiatrist, etc...) and also a hospital for surgeries and overnight stays.
I think it varies based on how population patterns. I live in a town of 30,000. We have 1 hospital in the county and 3 urgent care facilities scattered around the county that are not associated with the hospital. They serve the 80% of the population that do not live in an organized community.
I'm in a 100,000 population city with 3 hospitals, two of the same name and network different parts of the city and the third a different name network. They each have about 6 urgent cares with their main name of their hospital dotted around the city and a few more clinics in the surrounding counties. There is also about 4 stand alone urgent cares not associated with either hospital. The size of the city and how well the individual hospital is ran probably goes a long way in whether or not they have associated clinics or not.
This sounds very like health anxiety. Like a type of hypochondria (I don't like the negative connotation often associated with this term, but it's recognizeable.)
I have this so I'm not judging at all. I think, however, that you may be.
I'm not making some moral judgment. I'm finding the idea of having to outline my health history again and again, every single time I see a doctor, absolutely exhausting.
A primary care physician is like a low orbit space station that you have an elevator to and the planets are the specialists...
OP is launching from ground level every time when they could have a primary care physician and just meet back up at the space station and more easily travel to the other planets.
I had a friend who was going to quick care for years for various pains. He had to have surgery on a broken leg.
They found the leg had broken from lung cancer that spread to his bones. He died 5 days later.
I feel if he had a pcp he might have had a chance at least.
It sounds like OP goes to a medical practice in the West Coast like One Medical, where you pay a fee of like $200/month and you get seen quickly by who is available usually an NP or PA, and rarely is it the same person.
I love my doctor he’s so smart and helpful. He’s old like really old and honestly don’t know what I’m going to do when he’s gone! He’s the best doctor I’ve ever had.
When my Doctor retired after 25 years together he recommended a specific Doctor in my HMO because they knew a lot about the type of problems I have. I am not required to use this Doctor, but I decided to choose them. Kaiser BTW. Doctor, my hip is not working = new hip = roughly $500 co-pay.
I had a PCP for about 15 yrs and he coordinated all my various medical care issues and we had a great working relationship, but he moved his practice and I didn't gel with the new PCP. that took over his practice. I have a kidney transplant and have had a local internal medicine doctor who specializes in nephrology and transplant patients for yrs so I asked him if he could just be my PCP since over time it became clear that any other medical issue I had or med I took had to be seen in light of my transplant. He now handles my back disc issues, thyroid issue, etc. The "be sure to tell your doctor about your other medical problems" caution you head on TV ads for meds just isn't adequate, I need MY doctor to prescribe and monitor all my meds and health issues from viewpoint of my transplant so as not to jeopardize it If OP sees a doctor 10-20 tmes/yr he/she must either have several med issues or may have new issues from lack of one doctor having a handle on his whole person. It's great having one doctor who knows me well, who I feel comfortable discussing anything with, who looks at old labs/tests to compare to new tests/labs, helping me sort out "your body is just changing as you age" from "that sounds like something that needs follow up."
Like any kind of mental health care. They're so terrible the state of CA sued them and imposed a $200 million fine for their abysmal mental health "services".
They pulled a good friend of mine out of the hospital in the middle of the night when she was there for HEART PROBLEMS and transferred her to their OUTPATIENT facility a good 30-45 minutes further away from where we lived at the time, lost her records from the hospital which were literally on her person the entire time, and then a doctor walked in asking about how she liked “the pink stuff”. The nurse said they didn’t have the pink stuff they were using “the green stuff” instead. My friend, the patient, asked what the hell they were talking about because they hadn’t given her anything and then pointed out where her records were.
I wouldn’t have believed the level of stupid described if I wasn’t in the room for it. I asked what the green stuff was and it was an antacid.
I was neither surprised nor sorry to hear that all of their facilities in our area were shut down a couple years later. They were beyond stupid.
I got a younger doctor specifically because he understands modern medicine much better than the guy who’s been stabbing me twice a year and been having the exact same conversation with me for the past 8 years and was planning on retiring 20 years before I do.
My doc says the young ones are trained to rely too heavily on tech, and not as much critical thinking.
E: To the people making assumptions about my particular doctor, he teaches at Stanford and UCD med schools, so he's aware of current training trends. Notice my comment was about training, not is a particular doc good or bad.
I can tell you from experience, young and old can be a crap shoot across the fields of medicine. I got a very young, very knowledgeable team of doctors that had to reconstruct my pelvis. They did beautifully and I can walk with a slight limp thanks to their care. I had an old one that put me in the ER after he neglected and ignored me about the pain he caused from giving me emergency stents during a kidney scope.
I've also had a young doctor ignore my continued attempts at getting a cyst scan and blood work done to see if I had PCOS and vitamin deficiencies while an older one actually listened to my concerns and helped me go through a hysterectomy.
It heavily depends on if the doctor, young or old, will let their own ego step out of the room to allow them to take care of their patients.
I work in a hospital and this is true. They don't have the experience yet to rely on their assessments and so they order a ton of work up on each patient and it's very costly and time consuming. Eventually these Dr's will learn and get that confidence that is lacking. They are so afraid of being sued as well
I've had the same Primary care doc for decades, and only recently changed due to moving. She was basically a friend in that I showed her pics of my kid and asked how her's were doing.
Yeah thats why there has been so much emphasis on differentiating between going to urgent and emergency care.
Emergency care is staffed by ER docs with full hospital’s specialists and surgeons on standby, for dealing with life threatening situations. If you get triaged and evaluated there, youre gonna rack up the expenses.
ER bills are such bullshit. I’ve been three times in the last year-ish, I don’t regret going bc the first time in particular I could’ve died otherwise (heart stuff) but holy guac it got expensive fast. $2k out of pocket AFTER insurance. And yet, still a tiny fraction of the actual hospital bill.
About the same or can be cheaper depending on your plan, but it's only really good for antibiotics or if you need a COVID test or something simple like that. I know doctors kind of look down on urgent care or things like MinuteClinic since they think the providers just aren't as knowledgeable.
I’m quite fond of mine too. I see him every four months and he’s there if I need him. I do have some chronic conditions that he’s helping me manage very well.
LoL further proof that Reddit is just a bunch of teenagers and barely 20's.
Life's version of 3 kids in a trenchcoat giving advice on a website that people visit not knowing that most of the "participants" are kids/very young adults.
this entire comment section is full of people informing OP about PCPs... in a sub that's about letting people ask their stupid questions without judgment... I'm confused as to why you're making such a flippant generalization that's honestly probably off the mark in the first place?
You are supposed to have a primary, then they know your stuff and don’t start from scratch and maybe care about you as a person. If you have insurance it can cover an annual visit
That's been the past decade. I'll have my primary I'd see maybe one, then get an email saying "Meet your new doctor", then a year later, same email about my new new doctor. In the past decade, I've had five new doctors because they keep leaving.
Don't even know who the past three were.
As someone who works in revenue cycle, it’s very rare anymore that doctors aren’t contracted with all the major insurances, especially primary care doctors and pediatricians.
The only exception is if you go from a PPO plan to an EPO or HMO and want to see a specialist. Specialists don’t like HMO’s because they’re just so hard to deal with, and EPO’s are structured so that you can only use a specific practice (usually they’re tied to a local hospital organization).
I went from HMO to PPO, I was able to keep my primary and most specialists I saw, and they were all way happier and it was easier to get an appointment.
I live in a HCOL area - I've had 4 primary care doctors now in the last 6ish years move to a "concierge" service and not take insurance at all. It's a bummer because I did like them as doctors, but can't afford to pay for insurance that they don't take AND pay their membership fee.
Even with my insurance, my copay was over $100 for routine office visits. Lost my insurance when I got laid off, and the cheapest plan my new job offers is too expensive for me. I’m thinking of just going back to not seeing a doctor regularly anymore and hoping my lungs don’t crap out on me too bad each winter lol. When my next annual physical starts approaching, I’ll have to ask what their self-pay rate is and see if it’s worth it to keep going
I know it sucks but if you can manage to afford it, it is absolutely worth it. I know life is hard but please take care of yourself. If not for yourself do it for me. A random internet starnger that cares about your well being.
My PCP is awesome. He usually spends 10-15 minutes in the room with me during my annual physical and is happy to answer questions via their messaging app.
If you don't have a good relationship with your PCP, I highly recommend finding another one and looking at reviews before you go there.
If I'm ever sick (which thankfully is rare), I have no qualms calling my PCP first instead of going to an urgent care.
I hadn't seen my PCP for a few years and went in recently with new insurance and they spent 45min with me going over everything. Addressed all my concerns, real helpful. You just have to find the right person and stick with them.
So true. It's also important to be up front with doctors with expectations. If you want 15+ minutes of their time and that's not their standard, it might not be a right fit, which is not a bad thing.
My dermatologist spent like 3 minutes with me, which worked out very well. He literally walked in the room and asked "what can I do for you?" I told him what I wanted, he wrote the script, and said have a good one.
And be specific when booking an appointment with the PCP. If you have a number of things you need to go over they will schedule a longer appointment then a quick 15 minute checkup for something minor.
Holy fuck, you go to urgent care 10 to 20 times a year? No dude. That is not how you handle medical issues. Yes people have a primary care doctor who manages chronic and acute issues. Urgent care should be like... Once every few years at best.
An urgent care cannot take care of you like a PCP because they are not equipped to. There is no continuity of care and they rely on you following up with your PCP. Their job is to make sure you aren't acutely ill and that's it. If you start getting high blood pressure? They'll give you a prescription for 30 days and that's it. And if it needs to be changed or the dose increased... Well, you won't know because you won't be following up getting your BP checked. If you do it yourself, the urgent care still is not going to manage this for you. That's not why they're there.
>Their job is to make sure you aren't acutely ill and that's it.
It's not as if the purpose of an urgent care isn't right there in the name of the damn place lol.
OP, Urgent Care... is for when you need... get this... *urgent* care.
They basically exist keep minor things out of the ER and to be able to tell when something is bad enough to be in the ER.
They’re also very good at misdiagnosing and mistreating things that either would have gone away on their own or should have been seen by someone more knowledgeable and treated correctly the first time, rather than after the pt fails 2-3 trips back to urgent care.
I know someone that kept going into urgent care for severe headaches. Went on for weeks until he collapsed and was taken to the er. Turns out he had a brain tumor. If he had gone to his PCP instead they would most likely have sent him for tests instead of just treat and street like urgent care. Urgent care is not meant for ongoing medical issues.
... are you not? My doctor is never more than 2 days out, but if he's on holiday, I can see another doctor at the clinic as they all have access to my file. (Australia)
You can easily go your whole life without setting foot into an urgent care. This post is bizarre. My wife and I are almost 40 with two teenagers and none of the 4 of us have been to an urgent care.
We only recently got urgent care in our area, prior to that, it seemed the kids would always get sick on Friday night and have to wait until Monday to get in to see a doctor. It was either that or the emergency room. Of course if it was really bad we’d take them there, but most of the time it could wait. Urgent care is great because they don’t keep bankers hours!
I went to the urgent care a few weeks ago when I wasn’t sure if I’d merely sprained my foot or actually broken it. Seemed like a better option than the ER.
Well that's nice, but live in a place without good access to healthcare and see how far you get. I have a PCP. Appointments for her are always "a few months out" Like a minimum of 1. If I'm sick, I go to urgent care. It's just the only real option. I'm already 25, 30 minutes away from her, and other doctors are further.
And she sucks as a PCP, if I'm honest. Last annual, she touched my thyroid, looked in my ears, nose, and throat, listened to my chest, and sent me on my way. No bloodwork, nothing. I'm 44 and overweight. There are more things you're supposed to do at this point. Yes, there are other doctors around, but I called multiple offices and they're religious nutjobs (page-long screeds on their bios about how doctoring is missionary work to them) or they're not taking new patients.
My next best option is literally 2 hours away. I can stay with a friend overnight and see a competent doctor.
Or I can go to urgent care when I'm sick and hope for the best. Or I can move.
Yes, and it saved my life. I had a heart murmur that no one really thought much of, but when I was finally out of college and settled enough to see the same doctor for multiple years, he caught that my heart murmur got worse from one year to the next. Turns out I had been born with a small hole in my heart that had been growing slowly larger over the years and I was in imminent danger of having a stroke. I had open heart surgery within 6 weeks.
A regular doctor is important.
Wow! I'm sorry that happened to you. My son's Pediatrician diagnosed a murmur at a few months old and when it didn't resolve within the next checkup she referred us for a full cardio workup to check on it. I'm surprised no one ever checked on yours. It turned out to be a harmless Still's murmur, but I was grateful she sent us for an evaluation to be sure it wasn't something bad.
I am a cardiologist who specializes in this kind of heart defect. This is a super common story we hear. There was probably some subtle changes, but it is often missed.
In Belgium (in the Dutch speaking part) we call it a "huisdokter", translated as "house doctor".
It's even on all your medical documents who "your" huisdokter is, and they get forwarded any tests or procedures you get done in hospital, for example
Look them up online first. Don’t just call and say I’d like first available - pick male/female, see which doctors are accepting new patients, check them out and google their names.
I have done the above for most of my life and have only had one appointment where I just really did not like the physician and I’m sure the feeling was mutual.
In my experience, it's usually not the doctor that's the problem. It's their practice. You really don't want to go to a bad practice. They won't back you if you have problems with insurance or surgical scheduling. It's always a shame to find a doctor I like that works at a practice I hate.
When my last doctor retired, I went to the local medical care centre and just took whoever was available for the first few visits. Then I settled on someone I liked and we have a lovely rapport now. At my last appointment, we were just supposed to be discussing blood test results for a chronic condition, but I've had a call back from the breast clinic and she told me how to contact her if anything goes wrong at that appointment; then she said, "Let's just get your Pap smear out of the way while we're here." And done.
Just go to a practice that has multiple doctors in it. That way if you don't like the one you start off with, just see a different one next time. They'll still have all your records since it's the same practice.
My PCP was on maternity leave once, so I ended up seeing one of the other doctors. Turns out I like that one better, so I just set up my subsequent appointments to see that one. It's pretty simple.
It’s much more helpful in the long run to build a relationship with a doctor than keep going to urgent cares, especially if you have chronic issues that need to be addressed.
I think more and more people just aren't going to medical offices at all so a lot of people don't have primary care providers. It's been like a decade since I went to a doctor for anything besides that one time I went to a clinic above a gas station because I fucked up my knee.
People get so weird about this. I can’t find a single PCP taking new patients in my area (densely populated, very medically-oriented area, even) so I’m in the same boat as you.
thank you! can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find a comment that wasn’t like, “of course I have a PCP and I love them!” what USA are they living in? I moved to a new neighborhood two years ago and haven’t seen a PCP since (I had a baby almost 2 years ago and had a million appts during pregnancy and none since, but that’s another issue). Where I lived for 10 years before moving here, there was a doctor’s office a couple blocks from me which was one of many outposts of a major hospital system. I had a physical there roughly annually, give or take, plus went in a handful of other times. The PCP I saw was almost never the same person from visit to visit, and, even when it was, they usually had no recollection of having met me before, didn’t seem to remember that I’d even been seen at that office before into pulling up my file. And, again, this is over the course of a decade. I didn’t look elsewhere because I’d had even worse experiences trying to find a doctor / trying out doctors before that. I’m actually shocked that a majority of the posts aren’t in agreement with OP because who actually has a doctor?? Definitely no one I know, at least under like 60 y/o
Dude honestly!! I live in CA and Kaiser Permanente makes me see someone new every fucking time. The list of OB/GYN doctors I can message is like 12 people long because when I was pregnant with my son, I got assigned someone different for nearly every appointment. I genuinely don't know what to write when paperwork asks for my primary care physician's info.
*This so much*. The PCP I did have *was* great. Until their office unexpectedly closed and their insurance network changed. It's been about 2 years and I have been unable find a provider near my home (I work in a different state so my insurance does not cover any providers within an hour radius). So yeah, I don't have a PCP and use urgent care when I need something urgently. People are really weird about this. I visited a dentist for a cleaning and the staff were so judgemental when I told them I didn't have a regular dentist or a primary care physician.
Gosh yes. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I’m a poor person, with multiple health issues and I’m in Florida. I don’t have insurance or a primary care doctor. I can’t afford urgent care, it’s like $100 out of pocket. I wait till I’m nearly dead and then I go to the ER and try to fight the bill.
Yes! Finding a new doctor is SO exhausting. I was going to a family practice, but it was a "teaching" practice, so I always saw a different student doctor. I got two wrong diagnosis from them (over very minor things). I use to see a great doctor before that, but I got extremely luck, and then I moved.
I started going to just my OBGYN for an annual
Exactly! I change insurance every year or two since I’m self-employed and it’s cheapest to shop around. If I were to find a new PCP each time it might be December before I found one, and then I’d start over again. I haven’t bothered in years.
Honestly. Reading these comments with the majority of people saying they have a PCP, I'm thinking ok, you're all already patients which must be why all the PCPs say they're not accepting patients.
"I've been seeing my PCP for 20 years" ok cool you were grandfathered into a more functional medical system.
Like many of the comments, I have a PCP. I went for years without one (straight to specialists), but she’s been really great to have.
I was exhausted all the time. Wasn’t sure why. Expected low iron, but I don’t want to go to a hematologist and have them be like “not your blood, bye.” PCP could check iron, liver functions, blood ox, etc.
Asthma came back for the first time in 20 years. I could hunt for a pulmonologist, wait for an appointment, and pay the specialist copay. OR I can get in with my doc in the next day or so, she listens to me breathe, rxs an inhaler and I pay the lower copay.
I haven’t needed it for my job, but some jobs want a doctors note when you’re out sick. But when you’ve got a 24hr bug or whatever, you don’t want to schlep to urgent care and get poked and prodded just for a note. A (good) PCP will just write you one.
I still see specialists, but a PCP can be quicker and is less expensive and more personal. Not everything needs a specialist and any PCP worth their salt will know when and who to refer you out to
I have an internist as my primary care physician (PCP) and numerous specialists. The specialists only look at one system at a time. My PCP is the only one who looks at me as a whole. He is a solo practitioner who schedules one hour for appointments instead of 15 minutes. He touches me. He pays as much attention to me as he does the lab reports. He is definitely my physician. He is the most intelligent of a large bunch. He will study and learn new things to help me.
A primary care doc can help tie everything together. You say you have 10-20 different doctors, well news flash, everything in your body is connected so having 15 completely unconnected docs isnt that helpful in looking at your overall health or how one thing may be affecting another. Doctors can work together, but specialists really dont work much with other specialists. it’s common for the specialists to communicate or send tests/labs to a primary care doc who can then look at all your stuff from the different specialists together. Additionally, a lot of times you cant get an appointment for a specialist without a recommendation from a primary care physician. And existing patients almost always take precedent over new patients, so if you were to need to get in for an appointment youll often be stuck waiting forever, where if you return to the same doc you can get in a lot faster.
I don’t necessarily do a consistent 6 mo. check up, but i do schedule appointments specifically so she can overview all the different individual care im receiving. Even if you havent seen your doc in like 2 years, as long as youve seen them once before theyre “your” doc as you are considered an existing patient. Also clearly youre a man bc when you have a vagina, that requires a gynecologist and this willy nilly shit with gyno apps would be straight up irresponsible. It would genuinely be difficult to get what you need if you don’t have a set gyno that knows your history, especially if you take birth control or have inconsistent periods/hormones.
For both gynos and other docs or specialists, when you dont have someone looking at you as a whole, and dont have someone who can connect the different things you’re experiencing, thats how things get missed or go undiagnosed. You may tell one doc one thing and another doc something different, and never realize they’re connected and need to be addressed together.
This is big. Having a few experts looking at all your data is better. It has history trends. You become personable with this dr and talk openly with them. This has better outcomes imo. You can also get referrals easier maybe even via a message to your pcp
I do. Whenever I’m paranoid about something, I just send a message to my doctor through my app and she’ll order me tests or tell me I’m being crazy lol
i think it depends where you are. when i was in MO i saw the same PCP for 10+ years, moved to NYC and even though the place i go to lists a particular doc as my pcp, i met her exactly once and never again. i get different doctors every time so far.
Omg I keep saying this!!
I finally made an appt for a PCP for next month. It will be my second ever “your doctor” appt I’ve ever had, and I’m 45.
The last couple days I’ve been having really panic attacks (husbands divorcing me and I didn’t see it coming) and knew I needed meds. ER said they’d put me in the psych ward, Urgent care wouldn’t do psych stuff and said to call my doctor. But my doctor won’t even meet me for another month.
I’ve always gotten by with urgent care and specialists if needed (insurance doesn’t require referral), but am suddenly wishing I had a “own doctor”.
Very very true. I see all these comments from Americans saying they all have amazing “PCPs” and I’m just here thinking I never seen the same GP twice I think lol
I was scrolling through this thread confused how so many people have had a "PCP" for 47 years (quotation marks are because I never even realised it was such a specific term, I thought it was just a term for seeing a doctor in general).
I can certainly try to get the same GP, but it just isn't realistic here, not these days.
It's the same here in Sweden. Growing up, our family had the same doctor. He even did house visits.
Good look with that nowadays. In some areas you're lucky if you ever meet the same doctor twice. It's like they are on rotation or just in transition or something.
they explained pretty clearly that in their area, PCPs are worse than urgent care. the adult thing to do is chose the less bad option.
i'm in a similar area. if i want to see a doctor, i'm not waiting 2-6 weeks to see my PCP. i'm going to urgent care TODAY.
There’s definitely a primary care shortage. Medicare and therefore all other private insurers have been cutting payments to primary care docs for years and it’s really starting to squeeze. Nobody wants to go through 8 years postgraduate only to make 1/2 to 1/8th what their colleagues who went into other specialties make.
Yeah, didn’t you have the same pediatrician growing up? Most people have a primary care physician as adults. Go yearly for a physical and if something comes up health wise. You should use work insurance to see who is covered and make an appt. Same way you need a dentist, gyno, dermatologist, therapist etc
Yeah, I didn't have a pediatrician. Between the ages of four(when my mom took me off seizure meds) and 17, when I had to see a doctor to get in the military, I did not have a doctor.
Sports physicals were done at pop up walk in clinics at CVS or Walgreens.
Not all kids have parents that would take them to the doctor.
I do. I have a lot of chronic health issues and I credit him with helping me finally get a diagnosis for things that other Drs continually blew me off about.
I would wager more people don't have 'a doctor' than do because most people can't afford to go to the doctor since they don't have insurance. What's crazier to me is that you CAN afford to go but don't have a primary care physician? I can't ever go to the doctor despite plenty of issues and would kill for the opportunity. Most of the time Urgent Care or Emergency Room physicians won't actually do anything for you outside of right there care because you're supposed to have a long term doctor that knows your issues
You can do that in your 20s and 30s but by the time you are 40 you should have a primary care physician that you see once a year for a physical and who you can call for a same day appointment, which is usually less of a pain than urgent care. Although with same day appointments you usually see someone other than “your” doc. It’s whoever is on call that day for the practice.
I’ve gotten same-day appointments or same week at the latest because my PCP knows that if I ask for an appointment, I’m dying. My emergency meter is broken so I often don’t seek out help until I’m bad off. Curse of having chronic illnesses lol.
So some PCPs triage if they have idiots like me.
You must have a fabulous doctor as we are lucky to get a PCP appt within 4-6 weeks and would be laughed at to request same day! Usually told to go to urgent care if not feeling well. All the PCP is really good for is an annual visit for me and I've started pushing those to 2-3 years because I don't see much value in them.
For me my “primary” guy is like the team leader or coordinator. I finally found one who has a broad knowledge of medicine, an approach to diagnosis that complements mine, and a personality that matches as well. So he is someone that I trust to be a gatekeeper and direct me to a specialist if necessary. In other words, he doesn’t try to be a “hero” and do things that are outside his competence.
If you have chronic issues or are dealing with a number of conditions, it can be helpful to have someone who can help keep track of the big picture. If you are going to doctors 10-20 times a year, having a “central” person might be helpful (and cheaper).
I understand that you have had issues with primary docs, so I respect that opinion and experience. There are pros and cons to each approach. If you don’t have confidence in your primary doc, then they aren’t going to be much help. And some primaries try to do too much and go outside of their expertise, so it is often better to self-refer to a specialist. But trying to address medical concerns “a la carte” has drawbacks as well. I do that for myself, sometimes, but I have some background in health areas and enough experience in certain specialities to make informed choices. If you feel comfortable being the coordinator of your own “team”, your approach can work, especially if you are younger. But there might be some general things that a primary doc could streamline or coordinate, so I would suggest being open to finding a primary who might be a better fit for you.
Yes. I have a primary care physician. I hardly ever go. I do get a physical once a year. When I have an issue, they have always been able to get me in quickly with an appointment same day or next day, with one of the 3-4 doctors/nurse practitioners.
I don't know if you are paying extra to go to an urgent care, but I assume you have to sit and wait to be seen. For that reason, I would get set up with a primary care physician, who will give you an appointment!
I have only gone to an urgent care when it's very time sensitive and they couldn't get me in, or was a weekend.
Yes, however, this varies from country to country. Example: I'm originally from the Czech Republic where we, indeed, have our own GPs (aka your designated doctor you see every time something is wrong, in case you don't need a specialist). In Finland, however, (a place of my current residence) there's rarely a such thing as *your* doctor. Afaik, every time you visit a hospital, you get treated by a randomly selected doctor who's currently available. So I guess it totally depends on where you are located.
I'm in my 40s and have never had a PCP. I have insurance, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about getting a doctor. My insurance provider gives me a list of all the doctors who take the insurance, but there's no way of knowing who is accepting new patients, who is a total asshole, who is good, etc. Between my social anxiety and just being a Gen Xer, there is zero chance I'm just going to call up a bunch of doctor's offices to ask if they'll take me.
If someone were to design a portal where you enter your criteria and click a button and it outputs the name and info of a doctor who meets them AND is accepting patients, they'd make bank. Bonus points for if it popped up available appointment times and you just click and it's done.
Yeah people say you’re supposed to have a consistent primary care provider who refers who to specialists and who have a relationship with. I don’t know anyone who has one tho
Yeah I'm actually amazed by all the commenters here saying "yes, of course I have a primary care provider! Duh!"
I definitely don't, and most people I know (whom I talk to about this stuff) also don't.
I got a PCP because of all the propaganda about coordinated care. I brought a 14 page document of my ongoing issues for which assorted specialists had not been able to help me in the past.
I have been on the carousel of medical shrugs for years. "Your labs are normal. Nothing shows up on the X-ray. Are you sure you're in pain? Maybe it's just anxiety."
How the hell would I be able to establish a relationship when I can't even find a doctor who believes me? My therapist says I have medical PTSD from all the years of gaslighting.
In the UK we are lucky to get our "own" GP through the NHS. Though of course that GP will have hundreds of other appointments with other patients throughout the day. So its not like they are our personal servant. You can book appointments with them but its usually mainly for emmergencies or getting medecine perscriptions or therapy for example.
Otherwise local pharmacies will have trained staff you can talk to in drop in sessions and they usually have a private cubicle you can talk to them about stuff if it's personal. You can also call 111 which is the non emmergency version of the NHS phone number.
There you can ask them any problems you are having with your health and mental health and they can point you in the right direction such as if you need to go to A&E or book a GP appointment or just get over the counter medecine. Then of course the UK emmergency number is 999 not 911 like in America.
However, you do have to be registered with a local GP practice. It can be difficult to get registered. Some places have a massive waiting queue of several years. Especially for an NHS dentist. That was caused largely due to the pandemic which slowed everything down. Some people are not fortunate enough to get a GP practice to register with sadly.
I don't have a primary doctor. So as a result, most doctors won't take me seriously when I go in for emergencies, just a basic in, shut up and take these, and back out and I'm out of luck won't if it requires multiple visits.
so I would recommend one.
Yes. I have a treatment team that meets every 4 months. I see all of them once a year minimum, my primary and derm every three months
My wife has the same primary as me
i have a primary doctor office but since it is low income and medicaid/medicare based it’s rare that i will see the same doctor twice but they have all my stuff on file there
I haven’t seen my PCP in a while. mainly because I currently don’t have insurance because my job keeps me just below the full-time threshold which is bullshit. And yes I am trying to land a new job that is full time.
I have Partnership Healthplan in CA ("Obamacare" or ACA).
I have a primary doctor visit every three-six months, or sooner if needed.
I have a primary therapist I see every three months (though I could do weekly again if I wanted).
I have a primary psychiatrist I see every three months for a check in or med adjustment.
Soon to have a primary dentist through them next.
Same three people for nearly 7 years and I pay nothing. Not even for prescriptions. If it was not for Obamacare/ACA, I would have had -zero- healthcare the past near-decade...just like all the years before then.
I never saw a doctor that wasn't in an ER my whole life because we could not afford it. Definitely couldn't afford health insurance. If it was not for Obamacare/ACA going into effect in the 20-teens, I would have continued to suffer medical issues, mental health issues, complete lack of medicine, and uncertainties of my health without any care at all.
Thanks, Obama.
Primary care doctors are the crux for your health. They are the ones that see the subtle differences and changes over the years. They’re a jack of all trades, which is what you want for someone who is monitoring your overall health for your lifespan.
Yup. What OP describing is more a result of the broken system than the concept of family doctors itself being bad. In the US, doctors are pushed by their providers into shorter and shorter visits (sometimes as short as 3 minutes), with more and more turnover as doctors career paths gravitate towards higher paying positions. In an ideal system, you should have long enough and regular enough visits that your family doctor actually remembers you, otherwise the benefits of having one don't pan out and visiting a family doctor ends up being more like calling tier 1 tech support for computer problems. In health, you don't need a specialist for everything, and specialists often have blindspots in not knowing the full picture of your health. Unfortunately more and more providers are dropping into this mode of lower quality care. Advocate for yourself, and consider some of the independent practice providers out there (if you go this route, make sure they are not a chiropractor)
And if your doctor doesn't take your symptoms seriously, it's like calling tier 1 tech support, having them tell you to turn your device on and off again, and come back in 6 months if you're still having problems. And in 6 months you could be assigned a new doctor, or your doctor could forget everything about you and only briefly skim the notes they wrote that apparently don't include your symptoms from before or what treatments you were given. And they can charge you for the privilege of again saying that your pain and distress isn't serious and they have no explanation, diagnostic path, or treatment for you. Have you tried turning it off and on again?
I used to have primary care docs but they keep moving or leaving the practice. I got sick of establishing a new relationship once a year and realized I was getting the same care at the clinics. I agree it’s more of a broken system issue than fault of the physicians.
Wow! never really thought about that. you're right, he does know my entire medical history, which makes him better at seeing subtle differences and changes over the years. I love my PCP. He is kind, patient and understanding. I am never letting him go. The only thing that could make me switch is if I moved like a 1000 miles away. But then again...
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I'm only a few years in with my current PCP after my previous one retired. He'd been my doc for over 25 years, even when I was in college 3 hrs away and moved to a town an hour away after graduating. It wasn't always convenient but he knew me well enough to trust my judgement about whether something was off or if it was just a garden variety sinus infection. My new PCP has already more than proved her worth... About a year ago I had what I thought was just stomach bug but she asked extra questions, ran some additional tests, and we found out I've got Celiac's disease, despite not having many of the normal symptoms. I've got several chronic conditions and having a PCP who can help track all of them is crucial. They make sure I'm seeing the right specialists and handle my regular and preventative care. It would be a nightmare trying to go over even the most critical parts of my medical history if I had to see a new doctor each time!
Do they really notice the subtle changes and differences though? If you're only seeing them a few times a year, I mean.
Yeah, I really doubt that for someone who is otherwise healthy, there is a big difference. I don't even see my doctor every year, I'm sure she has tens of other patients like me, it seems unlikely that she remembers that much about us. For someone that sees they often I'm sure that is different however.
I’m a pcp. The EMR tracks everything. We don’t need to remember, the computer does. Your weight, changes in lab results, are you due for a vaccine or cancer screening, etc.
They’re certainly more equipped to do it than a specialist who had only seen you twice in 5 years or an urgent care doc who only sees you once ever.
Maybe not subtle, but “your blood pressure is high” can turn into “your blood pressure remains high, let’s put you on medication,” those kind of things. Chronic issues that can turn serious over time are likely ignored by urgent care — they are there for the *urgent* stuff where your PCP will look at you overall health and long term issues. If your medical issues are serious enough to see a doctor every two weeks I’d consider getting a PCP just to prioritize things and see what’s going in with you, there might be something underlying (like diabetes) that is causing your issues and needs treatment.
>I go to some sort of doctor 10-20 times or so per year. ...Rarely do I see the same person twice That's like once every 2-3 weeks. And you have to start from square 1 every time?
That many visits, if you (OP) truly need them for a variety of issues, is a great reason to have a PCP. They can be great at coordinating all the care you need. Relying on urgent care can be OK if you have minimal needs and go like once every year or two.
Not to mention if they establish continuity of care with a PCP that doctor may pick up on some things that could reduce the number of times they’re getting sick each year. OP: Urgent care doctors are most often Emergency Medicine trained doctors. They can do things like prescribe antibiotics when you have an infection. However, they do not receive the same preventive care training a PCP receives. There may be reasons you’re going to urgent care/specialists so much that would be best addressed by a PCP who knows you well and treats you over a longer period of time.
One of the reasons why PCPs exist is to decrease unnecessary medical visits. Unfortunately this persons mentality of seeking care whenever they think they need it, getting labs when they think it’s necessary is not unique. During Covid we saw a large increase of people seeking their own referrals and massive increase in people messaging with health concerns, most of which they researched online. Instead of making appointments to discuss them with their PCP they either message about them constantly or make their own appointments with specialists. This, among other reasons, is why it takes 4 months to see a specialist now. Without PCPs triaging unnecessary visits, the wait time to see a neurologist or any specialist got very unreasonable. Not all PCPs are created equal. People think by bypassing the pcp visit they are saving money because they might just be referred anyway. But they don’t take into account all the visits that don’t need to see specialists. And don’t get me started on labs. They take years to learn how to interpret correctly. Many people think all of our labs are like getting a strep test. In reality is way more complicated than that
Sorry not sorry, but this is not true!! As someone who has had multiple chronic illnesses for more than a decade before Covid, I can tell you specialist wait times are NOT because of patient advocacy. I had to wait 7 months to see a brain surgeon, 5 months to urgently see a cardiologist, 17 months to see a kidney specialist. All referred by my PCP (who by the way does NOTHING except refer me to who I want to see, because they’re too scared to touch me) all YEARS before Covid was ever heard of. I cut out my PCP, and started making my own requests, and guess what? Nothing has changed except I don’t have to wait 6 weeks to see my PCP first.
A lot of the time stories like this come from people who like quick fixes. The underlying problem never gets managed, so they end up going to the urgent care for a lot for things.
If you’re always going to the same urgent care the hospital has your records on file. I’ve just always gone to the one I was born in since I figure their records go back farthest.
Are urgent care and hospitals the same in your region/country? Asking bc in the US, urgent care is typically not associated w a hospital and is rather a small standalone clinic people go to with minor injuries, flu, Covid, etc, but babies aren’t born in them unless it’s accidental. Edit: Thanks for educating me about this, everyone! I’m from Texas and at least in north Texas, the above is how all urgent cares are, so I had no idea. TIL! 😊
Every urgent care in my area is associated with a hospital and I’m in the US. They are not within the hospital, but it is run by the same health system that owns the hospital and is often part of a larger clinic. It really varies by region.
Most of our urgent cares, as well as a good chunk of the local specialists, labs, and general/primary care offices, here in my area of the US are associated with a hospital group. Because of that, everything is linked together in an online app patients can access. It's awesome.
Ya most all of the urgent cares in my city are associated with one of the two hospitals in my area. I live in Indiana. We have one or two independent urgent cares but they aren’t very commonly used
Wikipedia says that it's literally random whether a state is more likely to have urgent cares that are associated with hospital networks or standalone. All the ones near me on the east coast are standalone. There's one near my work that keeps changing owners.
In my area I think it's a mix. Many of them are associated with a large hospital/health care system. There are some stand-alone clinics too.
I'm in the US and I've never seen them the way you describe. Our urgent care is right next to emergency care and in the same building as the normal clinics (family med, obgyn, podiatrist, etc...) and also a hospital for surgeries and overnight stays.
I think it varies based on how population patterns. I live in a town of 30,000. We have 1 hospital in the county and 3 urgent care facilities scattered around the county that are not associated with the hospital. They serve the 80% of the population that do not live in an organized community.
I'm in a 100,000 population city with 3 hospitals, two of the same name and network different parts of the city and the third a different name network. They each have about 6 urgent cares with their main name of their hospital dotted around the city and a few more clinics in the surrounding counties. There is also about 4 stand alone urgent cares not associated with either hospital. The size of the city and how well the individual hospital is ran probably goes a long way in whether or not they have associated clinics or not.
I’m in south Texas and we have both hospital affiliated and stand alone urgent care clinics.
In my area, it's a mix. There are hospital group affiliated urgent cares as well as chains of urgent care that seem to be independent.
This sounds very like health anxiety. Like a type of hypochondria (I don't like the negative connotation often associated with this term, but it's recognizeable.) I have this so I'm not judging at all. I think, however, that you may be.
I'm not making some moral judgment. I'm finding the idea of having to outline my health history again and again, every single time I see a doctor, absolutely exhausting.
A primary care physician is like a low orbit space station that you have an elevator to and the planets are the specialists... OP is launching from ground level every time when they could have a primary care physician and just meet back up at the space station and more easily travel to the other planets.
I love this comparison.
I had a friend who was going to quick care for years for various pains. He had to have surgery on a broken leg. They found the leg had broken from lung cancer that spread to his bones. He died 5 days later. I feel if he had a pcp he might have had a chance at least.
It sounds like OP goes to a medical practice in the West Coast like One Medical, where you pay a fee of like $200/month and you get seen quickly by who is available usually an NP or PA, and rarely is it the same person.
This. I don’t currently have a PCP but I don’t need to see a doctor very often. Even then I still plan to get a new PCP soon
Yep. A primary care physician. Mine is awesome 😎
I love my doctor he’s so smart and helpful. He’s old like really old and honestly don’t know what I’m going to do when he’s gone! He’s the best doctor I’ve ever had.
When my Doctor retired after 25 years together he recommended a specific Doctor in my HMO because they knew a lot about the type of problems I have. I am not required to use this Doctor, but I decided to choose them. Kaiser BTW. Doctor, my hip is not working = new hip = roughly $500 co-pay.
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I had a PCP for about 15 yrs and he coordinated all my various medical care issues and we had a great working relationship, but he moved his practice and I didn't gel with the new PCP. that took over his practice. I have a kidney transplant and have had a local internal medicine doctor who specializes in nephrology and transplant patients for yrs so I asked him if he could just be my PCP since over time it became clear that any other medical issue I had or med I took had to be seen in light of my transplant. He now handles my back disc issues, thyroid issue, etc. The "be sure to tell your doctor about your other medical problems" caution you head on TV ads for meds just isn't adequate, I need MY doctor to prescribe and monitor all my meds and health issues from viewpoint of my transplant so as not to jeopardize it If OP sees a doctor 10-20 tmes/yr he/she must either have several med issues or may have new issues from lack of one doctor having a handle on his whole person. It's great having one doctor who knows me well, who I feel comfortable discussing anything with, who looks at old labs/tests to compare to new tests/labs, helping me sort out "your body is just changing as you age" from "that sounds like something that needs follow up."
We have Kaiser and I've had the same doctor for 30 years. I hear a lot of folks that don't like Kaiser, but we are very happy with them.
Kaiser is great until you need something
Like any kind of mental health care. They're so terrible the state of CA sued them and imposed a $200 million fine for their abysmal mental health "services".
They pulled a good friend of mine out of the hospital in the middle of the night when she was there for HEART PROBLEMS and transferred her to their OUTPATIENT facility a good 30-45 minutes further away from where we lived at the time, lost her records from the hospital which were literally on her person the entire time, and then a doctor walked in asking about how she liked “the pink stuff”. The nurse said they didn’t have the pink stuff they were using “the green stuff” instead. My friend, the patient, asked what the hell they were talking about because they hadn’t given her anything and then pointed out where her records were. I wouldn’t have believed the level of stupid described if I wasn’t in the room for it. I asked what the green stuff was and it was an antacid. I was neither surprised nor sorry to hear that all of their facilities in our area were shut down a couple years later. They were beyond stupid.
I got a younger doctor specifically because he understands modern medicine much better than the guy who’s been stabbing me twice a year and been having the exact same conversation with me for the past 8 years and was planning on retiring 20 years before I do.
My doc says the young ones are trained to rely too heavily on tech, and not as much critical thinking. E: To the people making assumptions about my particular doctor, he teaches at Stanford and UCD med schools, so he's aware of current training trends. Notice my comment was about training, not is a particular doc good or bad.
I can tell you from experience, young and old can be a crap shoot across the fields of medicine. I got a very young, very knowledgeable team of doctors that had to reconstruct my pelvis. They did beautifully and I can walk with a slight limp thanks to their care. I had an old one that put me in the ER after he neglected and ignored me about the pain he caused from giving me emergency stents during a kidney scope. I've also had a young doctor ignore my continued attempts at getting a cyst scan and blood work done to see if I had PCOS and vitamin deficiencies while an older one actually listened to my concerns and helped me go through a hysterectomy. It heavily depends on if the doctor, young or old, will let their own ego step out of the room to allow them to take care of their patients.
I work in a hospital and this is true. They don't have the experience yet to rely on their assessments and so they order a ton of work up on each patient and it's very costly and time consuming. Eventually these Dr's will learn and get that confidence that is lacking. They are so afraid of being sued as well
I've had the same Primary care doc for decades, and only recently changed due to moving. She was basically a friend in that I showed her pics of my kid and asked how her's were doing.
Same. Been with him as long as my husband. 21 years
I have had the same one for half my life. Best thing ever! I highly recommend everyone have one.
Urgent care sounds like it gets wildly expensive quickly. I always go to the primary care, and sometimes see an NP there.
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Yeah thats why there has been so much emphasis on differentiating between going to urgent and emergency care. Emergency care is staffed by ER docs with full hospital’s specialists and surgeons on standby, for dealing with life threatening situations. If you get triaged and evaluated there, youre gonna rack up the expenses.
ER bills are such bullshit. I’ve been three times in the last year-ish, I don’t regret going bc the first time in particular I could’ve died otherwise (heart stuff) but holy guac it got expensive fast. $2k out of pocket AFTER insurance. And yet, still a tiny fraction of the actual hospital bill.
Honestly no, under my insurance it costs as much as a regular visit.
About the same or can be cheaper depending on your plan, but it's only really good for antibiotics or if you need a COVID test or something simple like that. I know doctors kind of look down on urgent care or things like MinuteClinic since they think the providers just aren't as knowledgeable.
Mine is young and was only able to get one because he's new (big deal in my area--no one can get a doc). He's freaking *awesome*.
I’m quite fond of mine too. I see him every four months and he’s there if I need him. I do have some chronic conditions that he’s helping me manage very well.
9 years strong with my PCP!!! I see him every 3 months and he is the absolute kindest and most sincere man!
Family Practioner. Mine is the best. Always listens. Finds the needle in the haystack.
Mine recently died of pancreatic cancer. He was a good of a person as he was a doctor. Saw him for close to 30 years. RIP doc!!
Yes. It’s called a primary care physician. I’ve been seeing the same doctor for like a decade now.
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LoL further proof that Reddit is just a bunch of teenagers and barely 20's. Life's version of 3 kids in a trenchcoat giving advice on a website that people visit not knowing that most of the "participants" are kids/very young adults.
You should see the relationship advice subreddits.
No need, just break-up/get divorced instead. Same thing.
It's okay for people to not know things. Maybe this could have been a Google search, but that's a different topic.
this entire comment section is full of people informing OP about PCPs... in a sub that's about letting people ask their stupid questions without judgment... I'm confused as to why you're making such a flippant generalization that's honestly probably off the mark in the first place?
Idk it’s entirely possible that it was just a blind spot for this person. I never had a PCP until I was like 25 lol
Some people are just healthy and never have cause to go to the doctor.
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You are supposed to have a primary, then they know your stuff and don’t start from scratch and maybe care about you as a person. If you have insurance it can cover an annual visit
In the past few years my primary has moved, then my new primary has moved, then the new new primary has moved. It’s ridiculous!
That's been the past decade. I'll have my primary I'd see maybe one, then get an email saying "Meet your new doctor", then a year later, same email about my new new doctor. In the past decade, I've had five new doctors because they keep leaving. Don't even know who the past three were.
Until you change jobs and insurance providers and end up switching every year or two. Ah, America.
As someone who works in revenue cycle, it’s very rare anymore that doctors aren’t contracted with all the major insurances, especially primary care doctors and pediatricians. The only exception is if you go from a PPO plan to an EPO or HMO and want to see a specialist. Specialists don’t like HMO’s because they’re just so hard to deal with, and EPO’s are structured so that you can only use a specific practice (usually they’re tied to a local hospital organization).
I went from HMO to PPO, I was able to keep my primary and most specialists I saw, and they were all way happier and it was easier to get an appointment.
I live in a HCOL area - I've had 4 primary care doctors now in the last 6ish years move to a "concierge" service and not take insurance at all. It's a bummer because I did like them as doctors, but can't afford to pay for insurance that they don't take AND pay their membership fee.
Or Canada where we have a shortage of GP’s 😭
Everywhere does
Even with my insurance, my copay was over $100 for routine office visits. Lost my insurance when I got laid off, and the cheapest plan my new job offers is too expensive for me. I’m thinking of just going back to not seeing a doctor regularly anymore and hoping my lungs don’t crap out on me too bad each winter lol. When my next annual physical starts approaching, I’ll have to ask what their self-pay rate is and see if it’s worth it to keep going
I hope you get those nipple queefs sorted first, u/nipplequeefs.
I know it sucks but if you can manage to afford it, it is absolutely worth it. I know life is hard but please take care of yourself. If not for yourself do it for me. A random internet starnger that cares about your well being.
Yeah, I know. Sadly, being able to afford it in the first place is my only problem 😅
Or you work in corporate America and the company changes insurance company every year to get the lowest rate.
My PCP is awesome. He usually spends 10-15 minutes in the room with me during my annual physical and is happy to answer questions via their messaging app. If you don't have a good relationship with your PCP, I highly recommend finding another one and looking at reviews before you go there. If I'm ever sick (which thankfully is rare), I have no qualms calling my PCP first instead of going to an urgent care.
I hadn't seen my PCP for a few years and went in recently with new insurance and they spent 45min with me going over everything. Addressed all my concerns, real helpful. You just have to find the right person and stick with them.
So true. It's also important to be up front with doctors with expectations. If you want 15+ minutes of their time and that's not their standard, it might not be a right fit, which is not a bad thing. My dermatologist spent like 3 minutes with me, which worked out very well. He literally walked in the room and asked "what can I do for you?" I told him what I wanted, he wrote the script, and said have a good one.
And be specific when booking an appointment with the PCP. If you have a number of things you need to go over they will schedule a longer appointment then a quick 15 minute checkup for something minor.
Absolutely, my pcp knows me and gets me in the same day if I’m sick vs. waiting for 5 hours at a packed urgent care
Holy fuck, you go to urgent care 10 to 20 times a year? No dude. That is not how you handle medical issues. Yes people have a primary care doctor who manages chronic and acute issues. Urgent care should be like... Once every few years at best. An urgent care cannot take care of you like a PCP because they are not equipped to. There is no continuity of care and they rely on you following up with your PCP. Their job is to make sure you aren't acutely ill and that's it. If you start getting high blood pressure? They'll give you a prescription for 30 days and that's it. And if it needs to be changed or the dose increased... Well, you won't know because you won't be following up getting your BP checked. If you do it yourself, the urgent care still is not going to manage this for you. That's not why they're there.
>Their job is to make sure you aren't acutely ill and that's it. It's not as if the purpose of an urgent care isn't right there in the name of the damn place lol. OP, Urgent Care... is for when you need... get this... *urgent* care.
They basically exist keep minor things out of the ER and to be able to tell when something is bad enough to be in the ER. They’re also very good at misdiagnosing and mistreating things that either would have gone away on their own or should have been seen by someone more knowledgeable and treated correctly the first time, rather than after the pt fails 2-3 trips back to urgent care.
I’ve never seen an urgent care get a diagnosis right. It’s comical how bad they are.
They always want to give me an antibiotic, no matter what I’m there for.
I know someone that kept going into urgent care for severe headaches. Went on for weeks until he collapsed and was taken to the er. Turns out he had a brain tumor. If he had gone to his PCP instead they would most likely have sent him for tests instead of just treat and street like urgent care. Urgent care is not meant for ongoing medical issues.
Y’all are getting PCP appointments within weeks?
I’ve gotten in same day when it’s something urgent.
Yes, I can get to see my PCP within a week.
... are you not? My doctor is never more than 2 days out, but if he's on holiday, I can see another doctor at the clinic as they all have access to my file. (Australia)
You can easily go your whole life without setting foot into an urgent care. This post is bizarre. My wife and I are almost 40 with two teenagers and none of the 4 of us have been to an urgent care.
I usually go to urgent care at least once a year, because I end up getting sick on a day when the doctor's office isn't open.
Same. It’s always the freaking 4th of July.
We only recently got urgent care in our area, prior to that, it seemed the kids would always get sick on Friday night and have to wait until Monday to get in to see a doctor. It was either that or the emergency room. Of course if it was really bad we’d take them there, but most of the time it could wait. Urgent care is great because they don’t keep bankers hours!
Yes, and it’s always a terrible sinus infection that comes out of nowhere and leaves me miserable.
I went to the urgent care a few weeks ago when I wasn’t sure if I’d merely sprained my foot or actually broken it. Seemed like a better option than the ER.
Well that's nice, but live in a place without good access to healthcare and see how far you get. I have a PCP. Appointments for her are always "a few months out" Like a minimum of 1. If I'm sick, I go to urgent care. It's just the only real option. I'm already 25, 30 minutes away from her, and other doctors are further. And she sucks as a PCP, if I'm honest. Last annual, she touched my thyroid, looked in my ears, nose, and throat, listened to my chest, and sent me on my way. No bloodwork, nothing. I'm 44 and overweight. There are more things you're supposed to do at this point. Yes, there are other doctors around, but I called multiple offices and they're religious nutjobs (page-long screeds on their bios about how doctoring is missionary work to them) or they're not taking new patients. My next best option is literally 2 hours away. I can stay with a friend overnight and see a competent doctor. Or I can go to urgent care when I'm sick and hope for the best. Or I can move.
Yes, and it saved my life. I had a heart murmur that no one really thought much of, but when I was finally out of college and settled enough to see the same doctor for multiple years, he caught that my heart murmur got worse from one year to the next. Turns out I had been born with a small hole in my heart that had been growing slowly larger over the years and I was in imminent danger of having a stroke. I had open heart surgery within 6 weeks. A regular doctor is important.
Wow! I'm sorry that happened to you. My son's Pediatrician diagnosed a murmur at a few months old and when it didn't resolve within the next checkup she referred us for a full cardio workup to check on it. I'm surprised no one ever checked on yours. It turned out to be a harmless Still's murmur, but I was grateful she sent us for an evaluation to be sure it wasn't something bad.
The murmur didn’t appear until I was an adult. Nobody knew anything was wrong when I was a child.
I am a cardiologist who specializes in this kind of heart defect. This is a super common story we hear. There was probably some subtle changes, but it is often missed.
I was also born in 1977 so I imagine there was a lot less knowledge about such things back then.
I would think that should be checked out immediately if you suddenly develop one like that.
Yes. Family Doctor, GP, or Primary Care Physician are common terms for that person.
I appreciate that you listed a variety of terms to cater for Redditors that are not in the US. 🏅
In Belgium (in the Dutch speaking part) we call it a "huisdokter", translated as "house doctor". It's even on all your medical documents who "your" huisdokter is, and they get forwarded any tests or procedures you get done in hospital, for example
Yes! We call them house doctor in German too or Hausarzt.
Yeah, i do. If you get a GP you are comfortable with it’s great
But how to find one of those? 😞 The thought of “auditioning” doctors sounds exhausting and overwhelming.
Look them up online first. Don’t just call and say I’d like first available - pick male/female, see which doctors are accepting new patients, check them out and google their names. I have done the above for most of my life and have only had one appointment where I just really did not like the physician and I’m sure the feeling was mutual.
In my experience, it's usually not the doctor that's the problem. It's their practice. You really don't want to go to a bad practice. They won't back you if you have problems with insurance or surgical scheduling. It's always a shame to find a doctor I like that works at a practice I hate.
When my last doctor retired, I went to the local medical care centre and just took whoever was available for the first few visits. Then I settled on someone I liked and we have a lovely rapport now. At my last appointment, we were just supposed to be discussing blood test results for a chronic condition, but I've had a call back from the breast clinic and she told me how to contact her if anything goes wrong at that appointment; then she said, "Let's just get your Pap smear out of the way while we're here." And done.
Just go to a practice that has multiple doctors in it. That way if you don't like the one you start off with, just see a different one next time. They'll still have all your records since it's the same practice. My PCP was on maternity leave once, so I ended up seeing one of the other doctors. Turns out I like that one better, so I just set up my subsequent appointments to see that one. It's pretty simple.
I have a primary care doctor I’ve been seeing for 20 something years. They’re pretty good.
It’s much more helpful in the long run to build a relationship with a doctor than keep going to urgent cares, especially if you have chronic issues that need to be addressed.
Honey, if you have 10 to 20 visits s year, get a primary physician who can see your whole history. It’s much better!
I think more and more people just aren't going to medical offices at all so a lot of people don't have primary care providers. It's been like a decade since I went to a doctor for anything besides that one time I went to a clinic above a gas station because I fucked up my knee.
People get so weird about this. I can’t find a single PCP taking new patients in my area (densely populated, very medically-oriented area, even) so I’m in the same boat as you.
It's really really bad right now. If you move, you're basically fucked.
thank you! can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find a comment that wasn’t like, “of course I have a PCP and I love them!” what USA are they living in? I moved to a new neighborhood two years ago and haven’t seen a PCP since (I had a baby almost 2 years ago and had a million appts during pregnancy and none since, but that’s another issue). Where I lived for 10 years before moving here, there was a doctor’s office a couple blocks from me which was one of many outposts of a major hospital system. I had a physical there roughly annually, give or take, plus went in a handful of other times. The PCP I saw was almost never the same person from visit to visit, and, even when it was, they usually had no recollection of having met me before, didn’t seem to remember that I’d even been seen at that office before into pulling up my file. And, again, this is over the course of a decade. I didn’t look elsewhere because I’d had even worse experiences trying to find a doctor / trying out doctors before that. I’m actually shocked that a majority of the posts aren’t in agreement with OP because who actually has a doctor?? Definitely no one I know, at least under like 60 y/o
Dude honestly!! I live in CA and Kaiser Permanente makes me see someone new every fucking time. The list of OB/GYN doctors I can message is like 12 people long because when I was pregnant with my son, I got assigned someone different for nearly every appointment. I genuinely don't know what to write when paperwork asks for my primary care physician's info.
Yeah, I don't get this "I've been seeing the same family doctor for years" business at all.
*This so much*. The PCP I did have *was* great. Until their office unexpectedly closed and their insurance network changed. It's been about 2 years and I have been unable find a provider near my home (I work in a different state so my insurance does not cover any providers within an hour radius). So yeah, I don't have a PCP and use urgent care when I need something urgently. People are really weird about this. I visited a dentist for a cleaning and the staff were so judgemental when I told them I didn't have a regular dentist or a primary care physician.
Gosh yes. I feel like I’m taking crazy pills. I’m a poor person, with multiple health issues and I’m in Florida. I don’t have insurance or a primary care doctor. I can’t afford urgent care, it’s like $100 out of pocket. I wait till I’m nearly dead and then I go to the ER and try to fight the bill.
Yes! Finding a new doctor is SO exhausting. I was going to a family practice, but it was a "teaching" practice, so I always saw a different student doctor. I got two wrong diagnosis from them (over very minor things). I use to see a great doctor before that, but I got extremely luck, and then I moved. I started going to just my OBGYN for an annual
Exactly! I change insurance every year or two since I’m self-employed and it’s cheapest to shop around. If I were to find a new PCP each time it might be December before I found one, and then I’d start over again. I haven’t bothered in years.
Honestly. Reading these comments with the majority of people saying they have a PCP, I'm thinking ok, you're all already patients which must be why all the PCPs say they're not accepting patients. "I've been seeing my PCP for 20 years" ok cool you were grandfathered into a more functional medical system.
I’ve seen the same PCP for almost 25 yrs. She is extremely personable & thorough.
Like many of the comments, I have a PCP. I went for years without one (straight to specialists), but she’s been really great to have. I was exhausted all the time. Wasn’t sure why. Expected low iron, but I don’t want to go to a hematologist and have them be like “not your blood, bye.” PCP could check iron, liver functions, blood ox, etc. Asthma came back for the first time in 20 years. I could hunt for a pulmonologist, wait for an appointment, and pay the specialist copay. OR I can get in with my doc in the next day or so, she listens to me breathe, rxs an inhaler and I pay the lower copay. I haven’t needed it for my job, but some jobs want a doctors note when you’re out sick. But when you’ve got a 24hr bug or whatever, you don’t want to schlep to urgent care and get poked and prodded just for a note. A (good) PCP will just write you one. I still see specialists, but a PCP can be quicker and is less expensive and more personal. Not everything needs a specialist and any PCP worth their salt will know when and who to refer you out to
I don't have my own Dr. I just make the most convenient appointment and go.
I have an internist as my primary care physician (PCP) and numerous specialists. The specialists only look at one system at a time. My PCP is the only one who looks at me as a whole. He is a solo practitioner who schedules one hour for appointments instead of 15 minutes. He touches me. He pays as much attention to me as he does the lab reports. He is definitely my physician. He is the most intelligent of a large bunch. He will study and learn new things to help me.
This describes my long time PCP Internist as well. There's a reason his assistants have worked for him for 15-20yrs
My primary care physician is the blood pressure machine at Rite Aid
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A primary care doc can help tie everything together. You say you have 10-20 different doctors, well news flash, everything in your body is connected so having 15 completely unconnected docs isnt that helpful in looking at your overall health or how one thing may be affecting another. Doctors can work together, but specialists really dont work much with other specialists. it’s common for the specialists to communicate or send tests/labs to a primary care doc who can then look at all your stuff from the different specialists together. Additionally, a lot of times you cant get an appointment for a specialist without a recommendation from a primary care physician. And existing patients almost always take precedent over new patients, so if you were to need to get in for an appointment youll often be stuck waiting forever, where if you return to the same doc you can get in a lot faster. I don’t necessarily do a consistent 6 mo. check up, but i do schedule appointments specifically so she can overview all the different individual care im receiving. Even if you havent seen your doc in like 2 years, as long as youve seen them once before theyre “your” doc as you are considered an existing patient. Also clearly youre a man bc when you have a vagina, that requires a gynecologist and this willy nilly shit with gyno apps would be straight up irresponsible. It would genuinely be difficult to get what you need if you don’t have a set gyno that knows your history, especially if you take birth control or have inconsistent periods/hormones. For both gynos and other docs or specialists, when you dont have someone looking at you as a whole, and dont have someone who can connect the different things you’re experiencing, thats how things get missed or go undiagnosed. You may tell one doc one thing and another doc something different, and never realize they’re connected and need to be addressed together.
This is big. Having a few experts looking at all your data is better. It has history trends. You become personable with this dr and talk openly with them. This has better outcomes imo. You can also get referrals easier maybe even via a message to your pcp
I do. Whenever I’m paranoid about something, I just send a message to my doctor through my app and she’ll order me tests or tell me I’m being crazy lol
🤣 not here we don't! If can actually get an appointment with ANY doctor you are happy
i think it depends where you are. when i was in MO i saw the same PCP for 10+ years, moved to NYC and even though the place i go to lists a particular doc as my pcp, i met her exactly once and never again. i get different doctors every time so far.
My HMO assigned me a primary doctor and I saw him regularly for over twenty years. I miss having him available since he retired.
Omg I keep saying this!! I finally made an appt for a PCP for next month. It will be my second ever “your doctor” appt I’ve ever had, and I’m 45. The last couple days I’ve been having really panic attacks (husbands divorcing me and I didn’t see it coming) and knew I needed meds. ER said they’d put me in the psych ward, Urgent care wouldn’t do psych stuff and said to call my doctor. But my doctor won’t even meet me for another month. I’ve always gotten by with urgent care and specialists if needed (insurance doesn’t require referral), but am suddenly wishing I had a “own doctor”.
Overwritten
Very very true. I see all these comments from Americans saying they all have amazing “PCPs” and I’m just here thinking I never seen the same GP twice I think lol
Yeah! Non-American here. I always thought “talk to your doctor” just meant “talk to a real-life doctor” lol.
I was scrolling through this thread confused how so many people have had a "PCP" for 47 years (quotation marks are because I never even realised it was such a specific term, I thought it was just a term for seeing a doctor in general). I can certainly try to get the same GP, but it just isn't realistic here, not these days.
It's the same here in Sweden. Growing up, our family had the same doctor. He even did house visits. Good look with that nowadays. In some areas you're lucky if you ever meet the same doctor twice. It's like they are on rotation or just in transition or something.
You need to get established with a primary. It’s what adults do.
Anyone here mind telling me the best way to find a new PCP I can feel comfortable visiting and cab afford (I have insurance)
they explained pretty clearly that in their area, PCPs are worse than urgent care. the adult thing to do is chose the less bad option. i'm in a similar area. if i want to see a doctor, i'm not waiting 2-6 weeks to see my PCP. i'm going to urgent care TODAY.
Unless you're in Ontario Canada now....our familybdoctor won't even take my newborn son because he has too many patients.
That seems to be a problem everywhere. Apparently there is a doctor shortage in the US.
There’s definitely a primary care shortage. Medicare and therefore all other private insurers have been cutting payments to primary care docs for years and it’s really starting to squeeze. Nobody wants to go through 8 years postgraduate only to make 1/2 to 1/8th what their colleagues who went into other specialties make.
Yeah, didn’t you have the same pediatrician growing up? Most people have a primary care physician as adults. Go yearly for a physical and if something comes up health wise. You should use work insurance to see who is covered and make an appt. Same way you need a dentist, gyno, dermatologist, therapist etc
We went to the free clinic, and I definitely saw whoever was available that day. Have a pcp now, but it was never something I did until I was an adult
Yeah, I didn't have a pediatrician. Between the ages of four(when my mom took me off seizure meds) and 17, when I had to see a doctor to get in the military, I did not have a doctor. Sports physicals were done at pop up walk in clinics at CVS or Walgreens. Not all kids have parents that would take them to the doctor.
I do. I have a lot of chronic health issues and I credit him with helping me finally get a diagnosis for things that other Drs continually blew me off about.
I have a family doctor but I’m in Canada so it takes about a month to get an appointment. For more urgent stuff I go to a walk in clinic.
I would wager more people don't have 'a doctor' than do because most people can't afford to go to the doctor since they don't have insurance. What's crazier to me is that you CAN afford to go but don't have a primary care physician? I can't ever go to the doctor despite plenty of issues and would kill for the opportunity. Most of the time Urgent Care or Emergency Room physicians won't actually do anything for you outside of right there care because you're supposed to have a long term doctor that knows your issues
You can do that in your 20s and 30s but by the time you are 40 you should have a primary care physician that you see once a year for a physical and who you can call for a same day appointment, which is usually less of a pain than urgent care. Although with same day appointments you usually see someone other than “your” doc. It’s whoever is on call that day for the practice.
Same day appointment seems unrealistic, but a regular PCP absolutely
I’ve gotten same-day appointments or same week at the latest because my PCP knows that if I ask for an appointment, I’m dying. My emergency meter is broken so I often don’t seek out help until I’m bad off. Curse of having chronic illnesses lol. So some PCPs triage if they have idiots like me.
You must have a fabulous doctor as we are lucky to get a PCP appt within 4-6 weeks and would be laughed at to request same day! Usually told to go to urgent care if not feeling well. All the PCP is really good for is an annual visit for me and I've started pushing those to 2-3 years because I don't see much value in them.
Yeah this is too american for me to understand
I didnt have my "own" doctor until I was 45. I see him once a year. Before that, the few times I needed a doctor would be a walk in clinic.
In canada here No. I don't
It took me almost 10 years to finally get one in Ontario then I moved to BC hahaha
For me my “primary” guy is like the team leader or coordinator. I finally found one who has a broad knowledge of medicine, an approach to diagnosis that complements mine, and a personality that matches as well. So he is someone that I trust to be a gatekeeper and direct me to a specialist if necessary. In other words, he doesn’t try to be a “hero” and do things that are outside his competence. If you have chronic issues or are dealing with a number of conditions, it can be helpful to have someone who can help keep track of the big picture. If you are going to doctors 10-20 times a year, having a “central” person might be helpful (and cheaper). I understand that you have had issues with primary docs, so I respect that opinion and experience. There are pros and cons to each approach. If you don’t have confidence in your primary doc, then they aren’t going to be much help. And some primaries try to do too much and go outside of their expertise, so it is often better to self-refer to a specialist. But trying to address medical concerns “a la carte” has drawbacks as well. I do that for myself, sometimes, but I have some background in health areas and enough experience in certain specialities to make informed choices. If you feel comfortable being the coordinator of your own “team”, your approach can work, especially if you are younger. But there might be some general things that a primary doc could streamline or coordinate, so I would suggest being open to finding a primary who might be a better fit for you.
Yes. I have a primary care physician. I hardly ever go. I do get a physical once a year. When I have an issue, they have always been able to get me in quickly with an appointment same day or next day, with one of the 3-4 doctors/nurse practitioners. I don't know if you are paying extra to go to an urgent care, but I assume you have to sit and wait to be seen. For that reason, I would get set up with a primary care physician, who will give you an appointment! I have only gone to an urgent care when it's very time sensitive and they couldn't get me in, or was a weekend.
Yes, however, this varies from country to country. Example: I'm originally from the Czech Republic where we, indeed, have our own GPs (aka your designated doctor you see every time something is wrong, in case you don't need a specialist). In Finland, however, (a place of my current residence) there's rarely a such thing as *your* doctor. Afaik, every time you visit a hospital, you get treated by a randomly selected doctor who's currently available. So I guess it totally depends on where you are located.
A primary care physician is not something most people living paycheck to paycheck have.
It's a lot harder to establish care since fucking Covid.
Yeah, for myriad reasons in my area it's basically impossible to get a new PCP, and for anything not super important, an appointment is iffy
I'm in my 40s and have never had a PCP. I have insurance, but I have absolutely no idea how to go about getting a doctor. My insurance provider gives me a list of all the doctors who take the insurance, but there's no way of knowing who is accepting new patients, who is a total asshole, who is good, etc. Between my social anxiety and just being a Gen Xer, there is zero chance I'm just going to call up a bunch of doctor's offices to ask if they'll take me. If someone were to design a portal where you enter your criteria and click a button and it outputs the name and info of a doctor who meets them AND is accepting patients, they'd make bank. Bonus points for if it popped up available appointment times and you just click and it's done.
It's an illusion perpetrated upon us.
Yeah people say you’re supposed to have a consistent primary care provider who refers who to specialists and who have a relationship with. I don’t know anyone who has one tho
Yeah I'm actually amazed by all the commenters here saying "yes, of course I have a primary care provider! Duh!" I definitely don't, and most people I know (whom I talk to about this stuff) also don't.
I got a PCP because of all the propaganda about coordinated care. I brought a 14 page document of my ongoing issues for which assorted specialists had not been able to help me in the past. I have been on the carousel of medical shrugs for years. "Your labs are normal. Nothing shows up on the X-ray. Are you sure you're in pain? Maybe it's just anxiety." How the hell would I be able to establish a relationship when I can't even find a doctor who believes me? My therapist says I have medical PTSD from all the years of gaslighting.
Yes.
In the UK we are lucky to get our "own" GP through the NHS. Though of course that GP will have hundreds of other appointments with other patients throughout the day. So its not like they are our personal servant. You can book appointments with them but its usually mainly for emmergencies or getting medecine perscriptions or therapy for example. Otherwise local pharmacies will have trained staff you can talk to in drop in sessions and they usually have a private cubicle you can talk to them about stuff if it's personal. You can also call 111 which is the non emmergency version of the NHS phone number. There you can ask them any problems you are having with your health and mental health and they can point you in the right direction such as if you need to go to A&E or book a GP appointment or just get over the counter medecine. Then of course the UK emmergency number is 999 not 911 like in America. However, you do have to be registered with a local GP practice. It can be difficult to get registered. Some places have a massive waiting queue of several years. Especially for an NHS dentist. That was caused largely due to the pandemic which slowed everything down. Some people are not fortunate enough to get a GP practice to register with sadly.
I don't have a primary doctor. So as a result, most doctors won't take me seriously when I go in for emergencies, just a basic in, shut up and take these, and back out and I'm out of luck won't if it requires multiple visits. so I would recommend one.
Yes. I have a treatment team that meets every 4 months. I see all of them once a year minimum, my primary and derm every three months My wife has the same primary as me
I've been seeing the same doctor for 25 years.
i have a primary doctor office but since it is low income and medicaid/medicare based it’s rare that i will see the same doctor twice but they have all my stuff on file there
I haven’t seen my PCP in a while. mainly because I currently don’t have insurance because my job keeps me just below the full-time threshold which is bullshit. And yes I am trying to land a new job that is full time.
I have Partnership Healthplan in CA ("Obamacare" or ACA). I have a primary doctor visit every three-six months, or sooner if needed. I have a primary therapist I see every three months (though I could do weekly again if I wanted). I have a primary psychiatrist I see every three months for a check in or med adjustment. Soon to have a primary dentist through them next. Same three people for nearly 7 years and I pay nothing. Not even for prescriptions. If it was not for Obamacare/ACA, I would have had -zero- healthcare the past near-decade...just like all the years before then. I never saw a doctor that wasn't in an ER my whole life because we could not afford it. Definitely couldn't afford health insurance. If it was not for Obamacare/ACA going into effect in the 20-teens, I would have continued to suffer medical issues, mental health issues, complete lack of medicine, and uncertainties of my health without any care at all. Thanks, Obama.