Is There a Difference Between a Family Medicine Clinic and a Local Doctor?
When it comes to choosing between a family medicine clinic like Family Care at Park Lawn, or a local doctor, this is something most people find somewhat confusing, more so when referring to internists that practice general internal medicine. But, there are fundamental differences in training, and patient care activities, which we will go into with this post.
Family medicine training is dedicated to outpatient training centers where residents will work throughout the course of their training. They are required to provide acute, chronic, and wellness care for patients with a minimum number of encounters with children and older adults. They are also required to have a minimum of 6 months of inpatient hospital experience, one-month adult critical care, and two months of care for children in either hospital or emergency settings.
Additional requirements go on to include two months of obstetrics, and a number of newborn encounters, one month of surgery, gynecology, and geriatric care, and two months of training in musculoskeletal medicine. They must also obtain experience with behavioral health issues, skin diseases, population health, and health system management, and there is an emphasis on wellness and disease prevention.
These differences result in unique skillsets for each one and define the different strengths when it comes to caring for patients. Because internal medicine education primarily focuses only on adults and can include experience in general and internal medicine subspecialties, training in adult medical issues is extremely comprehensive and in-depth.
The general and sub-specialty nature of such training gives internists expertise in diagnosing a wide variety of diseases which frequently affect adults, and in managing complex medical issues where multiple conditions can sometimes affect a single individual.
We hope that our post has helped to clear up any confusion that you may have had between a family medicine clinic and internal medicine? If you would like to know more about our clinic, please do not hesitate to call us at (405) 455-5330 if you live in or around the Midwest City, OK area.