What Can a Primary Care Physician Diagnose and Treat?

In the game of life, staying healthy is everyone’s goal. Having a primary care physician (PCP) on your team to oversee your health stats and care can help move you closer to the goal line.

When it comes to selecting a PCP, Dalton Carter, MD, with Memorial Hermann Medical Group at the Memorial Hermann Convenient Care Center in Summer Creek, explains how having a PCP can be important to your long-term care and well-being.

“I like to think of a PCP like me as the quarterback of your medical team,” Dr. Carter explains. “I’m the doctor who oversees and keeps things together for you. I must be there to synthesize information, make sure care is coordinated when things get hard and be the point person to maintain things when they're going well.”

Not Having a PCP Can Sideline You

When you don’t have a regular PCP that you routinely see, important warning signs can be missed, and that can have a negative impact on your health.

“When you don’t have a doctor that you see at least once a year, patients miss a lot of preventive care,” Dr. Carter explained. “PCPs will run labs to see how your body is performing, provide advice on routine maintenance and can identify any issues before they become severe.”

Carter notes that these labs are vital to run each year because they help your PCP set a baseline for your health, which can better identify diseases like diabetes, hypertension and other serious comorbidities at early onset.

“If you’re seeing a provider every year, you can catch these things before they get too far along,” he said. “It is much easier to treat these issues early on.

What to Expect in a PCP Visit

You should generally see your PCP at least once a year. However, if you have specific health risks or concerns, Dr. Carter notes that a provider may request more frequent visits so that they can discuss next steps or evaluate medication issues and make adjustments.

A yearly PCP checkup consists of a few routine checks, but if you haven’t seen a doctor in a while, you may find even the prospect of PCP visit stressful. To help, Dr. Carter has provided a list of checks that will come up at a PCP visit so you can know what to expect:

1. Lab work: A physician will request bloodwork to gain insight on what’s happening inside your body. This information can be valuable as the results can indicate whether you have a vitamin deficiency, high cholesterol or diabetes, and can provide a snapshot of the function of different organs, among other things. Lab work can reveal needs that may not be obvious by simply looking at or evaluating the exterior of a patient.
2. Vaccinations: While the overall awareness of the importance of vaccines may have peaked during the COVID-19 pandemic, there are other vaccines that are important for you to have. These include the annual flu or the Tdap vaccine, a booster that adults should get every 10 years to protect against tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis. But there are still other vaccines that you may need, such as the HPV, hepatitis or shingles vaccine, that a provider can recommend based on your individual needs.
3. Screening exams: Taking into account your lifestyle, gender or age, a PCP can also recommend certain screening exams. These could include STD screenings for sexually active individuals, a Pap smear or mammogram for women of a certain age or a colonoscopy, also depending on your age and family history.
4. Family history: A detailed understanding of your family history is incredibly important for a physician to know. For example, if colon cancer runs in your family, the PCP may advise you to have a colonoscopy earlier than what is typically recommended. Or, if a particular disease runs in your family, such as cardiovascular disease, your provider will have additional context when interpreting your lab results and proposing treatment.
5. Personal medical history: You should be ready and willing to share information about your own medical history. Dr. Carter stresses the importance of being honest—you should never feel embarrassed to share information with your doctor. Having an open dialogue about your medical history and medications will only result in better care for you.

PCPs Are There for More Than Routine Plays

PCPs are a resource that can provide you with more than lab work interpretations and routine health screenings. Dr. Carter pointed out a few other things a PCP can assist with:

• Acute illness
• Chronic disease
• Mental health
• Allergies
• Presurgical evaluations

“Certainly at times, you may need to team up with a specialist, depending on how difficult something is to control or if you need a more in-depth evaluation of a particular organ system. But a lot of times, your PCP can help you manage most chronic or acute conditions in an outpatient setting,” Dr. Carter said.

While a PCP’s focus is often prevention, Dr. Carter said that they are also there to help with acute illnesses. He pointed out that a PCP is there to triage any symptoms, and when it is time to get more specialized help, they can advise on the kind of specialist that would be best suited to provide more comprehensive care.

“Obviously, if you have an emergency, go to the ER,” Dr. Carter said. “But PCPs can help with almost any concern. If we can't treat it ourselves, we can help you find someone who can. That’s why I say that the role of the PCP is that of a quarterback: If we can’t run for a touchdown, we'll know who to hand it off or pass it to, so you get to the right place.”