According to a recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients ages 65+ living in areas with higher levels of primary care physicians live longer and make fewer trips to the hospital for preventable conditions.  The explanation given is that they are taking advantage of the proximity of their primary care physician or family medicine doctor to get regular care, helping to prevent chronic or life-threatening illnesses.

Dr. Maria Vazquez-Scott, a family medicine physician at MetroSouth Health Center at Beverly, sees this in her own Chicago community health center.  “My older patients who see me regularly definitely stay out of the hospital more.  Similarly, with younger patients, those that come to see me on a consistent basis, are healthier.”

A family medicine physician is actually an old-fashioned concept that is still popular despite today’s trend toward medical specialists.   A family medicine physician has extensive training and follows a patient’s healthcare for many years, serving kind of like a quarterback, recommending specialists as needed.

Family medicine physicians complete undergraduate school, medical school, and three more years of specialized medical residency training in family medicine.   Their residency training includes rotations in internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics-gynecology, psychiatry, and geriatrics. The specialty focuses on treating the whole person through all life stages.

An important benefit of the family practice model is that family members are able to visit the doctor with one visit while still maintaining privacy.  Parents and children may be examined all in one room or, as is often the case with teenagers, the doctor may examine a patient one-on-one.  “Sometimes this is the first time that an adolescent learns about safe sex and birth control,” Vazquez-Scott says.  Likewise, an adult may choose to be examined alone where they can ask questions in privacy.

Dr. Vazquez-Scott recommends seeing a family medicine physician for a yearly physical, school physical, management of chronic conditions (diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol), alcohol and drug use, gynecologic exams and conditions that arise such as a cold or flu.

“Family medicine physicians are all about the patient and their family,” Vazquez-Scott explains.  “We understand that a patient does not live in a vacuum and family circumstances can have a direct cause and effect on an individual’s health.”

Benefits of Family Medicine Physicians:

• Coordinates care for all of a patient’s conditions
• Offers preventative care
• Treats family members from birth to death
• Some can deliver babies
• Can eliminate need for emergency room visits
• Patients can be examined together or separately

To schedule a visit with Dr. Vazquez-Scott, call:  773-238-1111.