Whatever you call it — a yearly health check-up or a wellness visit — it’s one of the easiest and best ways for you to be on top of your health. By visiting your primary care provider (PCP) for these important annual appointments, you can reduce your chances of developing chronic diseases like heart disease (America’s leading killer), type 2 diabetes, certain cancers, and obesity.
How?
Because your primary care provider is skilled at identifying illnesses and diseases in their early stages when they’re easier to treat or manage.
“There are so many conditions we can detect before they start to cause issues that people don’t realize,” says Morgan Leh, PA-C, a physician assistant at Doylestown Health Primary Care in Richboro. “Typically, the earlier that any condition or illness is detected, the outcome is going to be more favorable.”
For example, one of Morgan’s patients came in with no outward symptoms of anything wrong. She performed the standard neck/thyroid palpation and found a lump. She thought it could be a nodule indicating a thyroid condition so ordered him an ultrasound to be sure. The result of the ultrasound was actually thyroid cancer.
“It was caught early and was dealt with,” she explains. “The thyroid was removed and now he’s living a normal, healthy, full life.”
Most of the time, insurance covers these visits without a copay, “so you can’t even come up with a valid reason not to go,” she adds. But in case you’re still on the fence, here are six benefits you get from visiting your PCP.
1. An Updated Medical History
By going through your medical and family histories together, your PCP assesses your risks of various chronic or genetically based diseases. If anything new has popped up in the past year, you can add it to the history to give the most complete picture of your health so it can be tracked over time.
2. Ability to Ask Questions
Sitting down — uninterrupted — with your PCP allows you to ask all the questions you need to about your health and get reassurances or ideas for keeping yourself at your healthiest.
3. Have a Physical Exam
Your PCP will check your vital signs and assess the health of your eyes, ears, abdomen, nervous system, skin, lungs, and heart, as well as measure your weight and height. If it’s warranted, your PCP can perform an in-office electrocardiogram (EKG) to detect heart issues. All of this information helps your PCP detect any changes in your health over the long term.
4. Learn About Cancer Screenings
Also at your wellness visit, your PCP will update you on the latest recommendations for cancer screenings and recommend any necessary tests for prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers. For instance, the recommended screening age for colorectal cancer was lowered in 2021 from age 50 to 45. Many patients are still not aware of the change, which of course, means more people need colonoscopies at a younger age. “It’s our job as providers to be aware of that information but that’s also one of the reasons we want patients to come in so we can update them on changes like that,” Morgan says.
5. Receive Immunizations
Your PCP will determine if you’re up to date on all of your immunizations like tetanus, flu, and COVID-19 and your annual visit is the time to receive any of those (or other) recommended shots.
6. Undergo Blood Tests
Your PCP will order necessary blood work to screen for conditions like diabetes, liver and kidney issues, Vitamin D deficiency, and high cholesterol, to name just a few. Those findings will indicate what might need further investigation or treatment.
Once you decide to schedule and attend your appointment, it’s important to bring a list of your medications, supplements, and your questions. But Morgan suggests bringing something else that few people realize: your openness.
“I recommend that patients come vulnerable because it’s a safe space. Many patients are embarrassed to say something and I often tell them, ‘I promise whatever you’re about to say [or show], we’ve seen it hundreds of times or more,’” she says. “Because if you can’t communicate to us about what’s bothering you, we won’t know that you’re having that issue or that you’re feeling anxious and depressed, so we won’t be able to help. But if you can’t feel comfortable at all talking to your provider, then I suggest finding someone else where you can have that comfort level.”
About Doylestown Health
Doylestown Health is a comprehensive healthcare system of inpatient, outpatient, and wellness education services connected to meet the health needs of the local and regional community. The flagship of Doylestown Health is Doylestown Hospital, a not-for-profit, community teaching hospital with 242 beds and a medical staff of more than 600 providers who deliver the highest quality care in over 50 specialties. Renowned locally, regionally, and nationally, Doylestown Hospital provides superior healthcare and offers advanced surgical procedures, innovative medical treatments, and comprehensive specialty services. Now in its 100th year of service in central Bucks County, Doylestown Hospital is proud to educate and train the next generation of physicians through its family medicine residency program. Consistently ranked among the best hospitals in Pennsylvania and distinguished in both infection prevention and patient experience, Doylestown Hospital is the only hospital in Pennsylvania to achieve 17 consecutive ‘A’ grades for patient safety from Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grade. Learn more at doylestownhealth.org.
About Primary Care
Our board-certified Doylestown Health Primary Care physicians provide preventive healthcare, healthy lifestyle education and compassionate treatment of illness for all members of the family. As a partner in health, we strive to meet the unique needs of each patient, with referrals and patient advocacy if the care of a specialist becomes necessary.
