Primary care physician or PCP is a practitioner who delivers first contact for patients with an undiagnosed health issue and also continuing care of varied medical conditions.

PCP should have MD, MBBS or DO degree to be called as a primary care physician.

Primary care physicians provide basic diagnosis and non-surgical treatment for common illnesses and medical conditions. PCP diagnoses the patient to collect the information on the present symptoms, past medical history and other health details as well as do a physical examination.

PCP is a well trained physician in some medical tests like interpreting results of blood or other patient samples, electrocardiograms, or x-rays. If you are in need of any complex and intensive diagnostic procedures, then you should consult a specialist.

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To ensure that you and your family get quick and affordable health care in shortest period of time you must have good primary care physician. It’s important not only to have a good primary physician at your disposal but also ensure that he is capable enough to provide healthcare services that are worth every penny you spent. The duty of Primary care physicians is to take history, do physical examination of the patient, prescribe initial tests required like blood, x-ray and ECG, analyze test reports and offer basic diagnosis and non-surgical treatment.

As primary specialists are first contact of patients with health care and diagnose their problems, they should very highly skilled, qualified and experienced in order to assess the condition of the patient properly and suggest the future course of action. Your primary care physician should be experienced enough to judge whether it is possible for him to treat the ailment or you should be referred urgently to a specialist. Another very important duty of a primary specialist is to educate the patients and their relatives about various safe healthcare options, personal hygiene, vaccination for kids, prescribe medicines and tests for general health. Its part of his duty to provide information on healthy living conditions and habits and reading symptoms of various illnesses.

Primary doctors specialize in many fields like Pediatricians, Gynecologists, Family practitioners, etc. Its always good to choose a Family practitioner as your primary physician who can provide initial treatment to your complete family. The most important factor here is that your primary care physician should be close to your home or office so that he/she can be reached in shortest period of time. Treatment by a primary care physician is always quick and low cost as compared to visiting a hospital emergency room or a specialist.

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Healthcare reform used to imply just regulatory change. As time marches on, it also implies market change. Most pundits agree that, whatever happens to the healthcare reform law, whether or not it is found to be unconstitutional, the healthcare business community is unleashed. Change is afoot!

If you follow my nahsaying on the issue, then you know I believe the expectations regarding ACOs are overblown and unrealistic. Martians will not land here en masse, although there may be an occasional stow away on a NASA craft. Put another way, as some others have said, ACOs are like unicorns-magical, mythical beasts that no one has ever seen. I don’t expect many to come prancing around in Florida, at least not South Florida, anytime soon.

Regardless of how you define it, and regardless of what the ACO regs (expected out by the end of March, 2011) say, one thing must be accepted: there is a strong movement in the public and private sector to (1) control and reduce healthcare costs, while (2) improving quality. And ANYTHING that can do that will have a strong spot on the chess board, whether you call it an “ACO,” and “Patient-centered medical home” or a “tomato.”

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