Why One Doctor For The Whole Family Helps Keep You Healthy
Posted on: 26 April 2019
Trying to keep a family healthy is a team effort led by both the parents and a good family doctor. While it's always possible to have separate doctors -- and in some cases, such as when one family member has special medical needs, it's a given -- in general it's often best for a family to have one main doctor for general medical issues. Having one doctor or even one clinic, if the doctor works with partners, can be beneficial in more than one way.
Seeing Patterns
One benefit is that the care across family members will be more consistent and give the doctor the opportunity to spot any patters. For example, if you have several young children who always seem to get sick, you know they must be passing the illness around, but your doctor may be able to spot who is getting sick when. That helps you find the pathway the illnesses take so you can change them. Maybe the oldest seems to get sick first, passing it on to others; you can then take a look at what the oldest is doing to start that cascade, such as not being careful about hygiene when sick.
Saving Time
Meeting with the same doctor can also save time. Group check-ups together so that you don't have to make as many trips to the doctor's office as you would if you had to see separate doctors. You'll still need to spend the time for the appointments, but travel time will be reduced. If you and your child need your yearly checkups and you go at separate times to separate doctors, you have to travel to and from the doctor's office twice. If you go to the same doctor, just arrange for the appointments to be next to each other so you have to travel to and from there only once.
Tracking Progress
A family doctor can also track health progress over the years, which could help spot chronic problems a lot earlier. What might look like stress to a new doctor who isn't familiar with a person's medical history could be found to be a chronic issue that's growing more noticeable by a doctor who's been seeing this patient for years.
Family doctors can provide care for everyone in the family from children to adults. The consistency of care is excellent and helps you and your family continue on the road to good health.
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