Yonkers is a metropolitan town in New York with plenty of families. Every family should have a family doctor. There are many practitioners of board certified family medicine in Yonkers.
Almost one in every four medical visits in the United States is to a family doctor and that is the most commonly visited medical office by far.
The reason is that family doctors offer comprehensive care to all family members as opposed to specialists who only focus on a particular age group or body part.
Simply stated, family medicine is not about treating diseases but taking care of people. The following are the roles of a family doctor:
Preventive Care
As the old adage states, ‘prevention is better than cure.’ A family doctor is responsible for ensuring patients do not contract diseases in the first place.
Disease prevention and overall health maintenance are some of the key functions of a family medicine practitioner. They not only address your biological health but your mental and emotional health as well.
Ways in which family doctors offer preventive care is by offering nutrition advice and stress management techniques. They will also advise you as to which is the best way to maintain your physical health through exercise. They will also administer vaccinations when necessary.
Treating Chronic Family Illnesses
There are many diseases that are hereditary. Such conditions make family members predisposed to contracting certain illnesses.
One role of a family medicine practitioner is to treat such illnesses when they arise in a patient or multiple family members. It is especially important for them to treat such illnesses when they become chronic.
Chronic illnesses last a long time and consistency is key to properly treating them. That means a family doctor with experience treating a patient with a chronic illness is better suited to do so than visiting many doctors to address the same condition.
Maintaining Family Medical History
Every family should have a well-recorded medical history. It certainly helps treat illness when they arise and better yet, to prevent them.
A family doctor should have the records of the entire family from the point when they became the family’s doctor. If they can, they should acquire the medical records from the family’s previous physicians just to be comprehensive.
It is a family doctor’s responsibility to keep the family’s medical history safe and current. Therefore, whenever the records are needed, they can be easily retrieved and used for the benefit of the patient.
Lead Your Healthcare Team
If you are fortunate enough to have a healthcare team looking after your health, then your family doctor should lead them. He /she is best placed to address your health concerns as they have the most experience with your medical history.
A healthcare team will include nurses, medical assistants, and other doctors. They will work in cooperation with other healthcare professionals such as pharmacists, therapists, and physical trainers among others to ensure your health is optimal.
In this regard, a family doctor spares you a lot of the stress of having to coordinate with all of these people on your own. They are also better suited to evaluate their proficiency than you are.
