Healthcare Right Now

Get a PCP!

• Sue • Season 1 • Episode 2

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What is the number one thing you can do in America to improve your healthcare access? Let's figure it out!

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Sue:

Hello. Welcome to Healthcare. Right now, the show what the health is going on. We are going to address the current healthcare situation in America, and more importantly, some things that you can do about it.

Sue:

Today we're gonna talk about the number one thing you can do to maximize your care.

Sue:

Hi, my name is Sue. I'm an RN with 20 plus years of healthcare experience, and my goal is to help you. Maximize your health, streamline your access to care, and optimize your healthcare outcomes.

Sue:

Today we're gonna do a very quick podcast about that number one thing you can do to maximize your care and minimize your costs. What is it? Get a PCP or a primary care physician. You could see a PA or a nurse practitioner. It doesn't matter as long as it's your primary.

Sue:

Why, why do you need a primary care physician? They are the channel, they are the funnel, they are the gatekeeper, whatever you want to call it, through which all the rest of your healthcare flows.

Sue:

As the name implies, they are primary, as in they are the first person you should be seeing for all of your basic healthcare needs. The PCP is responsible for managing your care long term. They're the doctor who can prescribe and change medications. They can order blood work, and they can order consults to other doctors, which might be important to you.

Sue:

Do you have a health concern that's come up that's developed recently or maybe it's been ongoing and it's kind of a mystery? Your primary care doctor is the one that can help you really dig into a condition and see what's going on. They can help you discover a diagnosis. This can be a difficult and long process depending on what's going on, if it's vague, and they're really the ones who are responsible for ordering all that deep testing.

Sue:

They're also responsible for helping you manage acute concerns such as sore throats and colds that are lingering on, and maybe you need some antibiotics. So there's many different kinds of PCPs. You can have family medicine. There's an internal medicine doctor, and there's also things like pediatrics or geriatrics. You can look into those and decide which one is the best fit for your situation.

Sue:

If you are in the geriatric population, which is 65 and older, it starts pretty young actually. Or if you're looking for a primary care physician for your child. I really do recommend those specialist PCPs and we can go more into depth on why that's a good idea at a later time. But it's because really they're the ones who can address the very special concerns of those populations a lot better.

Sue:

You should be seeing your PCP yearly this has been free since the Affordable Healthcare Act passed. You may have to spend additional money for any. Tests that they perform there, but the visit itself and the discussion with a doctor will be free and their exam will be free. This will help you develop a relationship and trust with your doctor. This helps the doctor also to see you in a state of general good health, which helps them make decisions when you come in sick, they'll understand your baseline and how far off from the norm that you are. This is important in their decision making process. It prevents delays in care,

Sue:

A

Sue:

nother role of the PCP is early detection of diseases through routine care. PCPs are the doctors who order your colonoscopies when you turn 45. All those preventative tests that are age-based they can order mammograms. They order yearly labs to make sure your blood sugar and your cholesterol are check before you get diabetes or before you have a heart attack. They are able to investigate health concerns.

Sue:

If you have a mystery illness and it's gonna take some digging to figure out what's going on, you need a PCP. You cannot accomplish this with an ER or an urgent care doctor. That's just not their purview. Referrals. If you are having a health concern, you likely need to see a specialist such as a cardiologist, a pulmonologist, a gastroenterologist. And your PCP is the one who can refer you to these doctors so that you can get the specialized care that you need.

Sue:

PCPs are the ones who manage your medications. You're probably gonna wanna refill on that at some point. Your PCP is the one who can prescribe and refill this.

Sue:

So what is the importance of a primary care doctor? They are your first point of contact in the healthcare system. They offer comprehensive and continuous care. They offer coordination of specialist care and help you manage your chronic conditions. They are important in the prevention, early detection and management of healthcare issues, and they are really the only doctors who can do this.

Sue:

There are many other doctors that you can see. But the ones who can really help you manage your care, especially if you have a chronic condition, is a primary care physician.

Sue:

What are the benefits of having a primary care doctor?

Sue:

It has been shown that if you have a primary care doctor, you have improved overall health outcomes throughout your life. You can have a reduction in healthcare costs through preventative care. They offer personalized care and long-term patient doctor relationships, and they offer better management of chronic diseases. You end up saving money because you're not going to ER or urgent care, which is more expensive than your primary care doctor.

Sue:

Also, PCPs can root out problems early and early t reatment is key in so many diseases,

Sue:

What happens if you don't have a PCP?

Sue:

Someone I know lost their PCP. I believe that their PCP moved and they didn't get a new one. Now they had a PCP, so they were seeing a specialist already, and they were on a very specialized drug. It's a med that's needed for an autoimmune condition. This person. Needed this medication. When it came time to renew the prescription, which happens usually annually if you've been on a med for a long time. the doctor needed to see him doctors are required to see you and assess you before they can just dole out prescriptions without having any sort of oversight so this person, this patient went to the specialist and the specialist said, well, you need labs before you can get a refill.

Sue:

And the specialist said. You need your PCP to order these labs. It's not my job to order these labs. They need to come through your PCP. But the specialist was like, I'm not gonna order these labs. You absolutely have to have 'em through a PCP. But he didn't have one.

Sue:

The specialist was like, you're on this very special medication. You need to be getting these labs every year due to your age. And because you're on this medication, you're at certain risks and we need to know what's going on inside your body.

Sue:

The prescription did not get renewed. The specialist would not order the labs, and they said, you're on a very big drug. You need to be having annual physicals. Someone medical needs to have their eyes on you every year. This med has serious risks associated with it.

Sue:

This is medically reasonable. It protects doctors and it protects patients.

Sue:

So then this individual had to go find a PCP. Unfortunately, this can take a while depending on the healthcare system you're in, where you're located, if you're rural, et cetera. Now they have been off their biological medication for about three months, and this delay has caused physical pain and a return of the symptoms of their autoimmune disease.

Sue:

So more of this story. A PCP is just something you need to have on your care team. They're the captain and you absolutely need to have a team captain. If you don't, your care is going to be more expensive and your treatments are going to get delayed. So get a PCP.

Sue:

Interestingly, this same individual did not have a dentist. And then they had some issues with their teeth at completely unrelated, but they had some issues with their teeth around the same time that this was going on. And they required a root canal.

Sue:

It took them a week to find a dentist and get into the dentist office to get seen. Once he was at the dentist, he assumed that, oh, the dentist is gonna take care of this tooth pain during this visit. But the dentist said, I'm sorry, I just met you. I need to dig into your history. I need to know what I'm doing. I need to order different things. I have to get x-rays. I have to formulate a plan, so you're gonna have to come back next week, and then we can do the root canal.

Sue:

It took two weeks of excruciating dental pain before the issue could get resolved. So get a PCP and get a dentist. Dentists are great to have on board. Dental pain is very miserable and dentists are really the only people who can treat dental pain. If you go to the ER with dental pain, they may be able to help you depending on if it's in the upper or lower jaw. The, numbing medication they use goes better depending on the location, if it's upper or lower. But that's temporary and they will not keep applying that, numbing agent. They will not keep injecting it, they say. Get a dentist. I can't just keep numbing this. That's not responsible. You have to get the problem taken care of.

Sue:

So have a dentist have a PCP, and to keep either of those two people, you need to see them at once per year.

Sue:

So what are some challenges in accessing a primary care doctor? There can be many barriers to accessing your primary care doctor. For one, you may live in a rural area. You might not have very many doctors available to you.

Sue:

You could have a lack of insurance. Solutions to these issues could be some policy changes from the government, so continue to contact your local representatives and demand access to healthcare Access to insurance and policies that are doctor friendly are all in their purview. Your Senate representative, your house representative, they can make meaningful changes that will help you get access to care and it is their responsibility to do so.

Sue:

And another change that's very exciting is telehealth. Telehealth is really improving access to care. It's something that I think is very exciting. I'm not sure how doctors feel about it. Maybe we can get a doctor to weigh in on how they feel about telehealth and how that's going for America. But I really feel that it's improving access to care. It can be done. Over the computer. It can be done, online, which is very exciting and super easy to get the medications that you need.

Sue:

It's forecasted to be growing in the coming years, and it's making things easier than ever. So if you have a PCP or you're in a system, see if they have telehealth and what services are available to you.

Sue:

Another barrier to getting care in the United States is a shortage of primary care physicians, unfortunately, the shortage of doctors is going to increase. One thing we could do? To get more doctors in the United States, one.

Sue:

Make doctor friendly policies contact your congressman. Two. I really feel that there should be an education change in the United States, and maybe this is a hot take. I don't know. The amount of time it takes to become a doctor in America is very prohibitive. It can take between 11 and 17 years, depending on the specialty, and that's just too long. How can we churn out more doctors? If you look at other countries. it's still a long time. I'm not gonna like say that it isn't, but they shave one to two years simply by eliminating some fluff in the curriculum. It is required that you have an undergraduate degree in America before you can move on to med school. And then you have your residency and then specialized schooling, after that, that's what takes so long. But other schools in other countries. They roll in the undergraduate degree into the med school process, and it shaves two years off of that. Requiring things that are not related to their degree. Just to have like a broad spectrum undergraduate degree. It's very lofty and noble, but it is unnecessary and we need to shave it. All that it is really helping. Is the college's bottom line. You are getting enough money from these people. Give them some breathing room. They need that brain power to go to doctoring, not to these little classes

Sue:

A problem you may have encountered in getting a PCP is a mismatch of goals and personalities. I've had people tell me before, oh, I just hate my home doctor. I don't even wanna see him or her. If that's the case, please move on. Find a different one. Find one that aligns with your goals that you have for yourself. And don't be afraid to switch to get what you need.

Sue:

I have switched doctors in the past because I did not feel that the person aligned with my vision for my health and my long-term care goals. And that's fine. Maybe they're a great doctor for someone else, but they weren't for me. So switch to get what you need.

Sue:

In conclusion, please get a PCP. This is my call to action for all listeners, please contact your local healthcare system or look them up on their website. They very likely have an assistance program to help you establish a primary care doctor in that system. Start asking around who do your smart and informed friends see? Do they like them? Do they trust them? Establish a PCP now before a health crisis hits, it's really gonna improve your access to care. I'm so happy to have you all here with me.

Sue:

Next episode, we're gonna do it. We're gonna talk about that measles crisis going on in the United States. We are having a measles outbreak and we have a new. HHS secretary. Next episode, we are going to talk about what the health is going on. Thank you so much for listening. please click like and subscribe and share if you wanna spread this message. Thank you.