Health Care Can Still Be A “Family Thing”

You might remember the “good old days,” when the lone town doctor made the rounds, traveling from house to house with his little black bag, often pausing after your child’s check-up to have a cup of coffee and visit a bit before moving on down the road to the next house.

As is the case with many things, the practice of medicine has changed drastically in the last generation or two.  In the past, “House Call” doctors used to make door to door rounds which today is now history – almost a museum-piece relic of an era long past.

To many people, healthcare has grown into a lucrative business rather than the sort of a personal relationship our grandparents might’ve experienced when it comes to a doctor-patient relationship. However, it doesn’t always have to be that way.

Increasingly, family medical practices are returning to the sort of community relationship-based health care that seeks to help the whole family, and the whole of each person in it, for the whole of their life.

Grandpa’s old doc would like the sound of that.

Getting To Know You – Body, Mind, And Spirit

You might have a single MD who becomes your main provider or it might be a Physician’s Assistant who is trained to care for you and yours under the doctor’s supervision or you might have a team of two or more professionals who focus on your family’s healthcare needs.

In any case, your family doctors aren’t just looking for a paycheck when they come to your house and do their checkups. They’re after a rapport with you and the entire family so that it makes their job much easier and more effective. Building a rapport establishes a trust which branches out to everyone close to your family including friends, neighbors, and other relatives.

Establishing a rapport means that they’ll know your likes and dislikes, your hopes, desires, and fears. Some doctors even ask what your dreams are about so that they can better understand your condition. You’ll be disclosing information with your doctor, some of which may be very sensitive.

However, you do not need to worry as doctors and other medical professionals are bound by their oath when it comes to patient confidentiality. Should any information about you leak out, any medical professional is criminally held liable by law.

When you enjoy a true trust-based relationship with your family doctors, they get to know the whole you – body, mind, and spirit. You have the opportunity to develop a comfort level with your health care that you wouldn’t otherwise have.

Relationship Medicine Facilitates The Best Preventive Care

When your family doctors develop the right relationship with the members of your family, they’re in a position to know the kind of “insider information” that can really help keep you all healthy.

They say “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.” Once a doctor gets to know you and your family in a personal and professional way, that “ounce” becomes more and is a valuable key to proper treatments.

You can imagine how relationship-focused family doctors would get to know you so well they’d sometimes be able to anticipate risks and threats to your health before problems arise.

Today’s family doctors put in the time and effort to really get to know you, and they stay focused on building the sort of relationship that maximizes their ability to keep you lively… through every stage of your life.

Let Your Health Care Be A Family Thing  

The healthiest bodies usually house the sharpest minds and the happiest spirits.  To keep yourself at your sharpest, healthiest, and happiest, let a family doctor (or team) take care of your family.  Doesn’t that sound better than “take a number?”