Primary care is the health care given by a health care provider. Typically this provider acts as the principal point of consultation for patients within a health care system and coordinates other specialists that the patient may need. Such a professional can be a primary care physician, such as a general practitioner or family physician, or depending on the locality, health system organization, and patient's discretion, they may see a pharmacist, a physician assistant, a nurse practitioner, a nurse (such as in the United Kingdom), a clinical officer (such as in parts of Africa), or an Ayurvedic or other traditional medicine professional (such as in parts of Asia). Depending on the nature of the health condition, patients may then be referred for secondary or tertiary care.
Read more about Primary Care: Background
Famous quotes containing the words primary and/or care:
“The primary function of a theater is not to please itself, or even to please its audience. It is to serve talent.”
—Robert Brustein (b. 1927)
“There is no legislation—I care not what it is—tariff, railroads, corporations, or of a general political character, that all equals in importance the putting of our banking and currency system on the sound basis proposed in the National Monetary Commission plan.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)