Pick A Doctor You Like, Then Hold On Tight

Continuity of care. That concept is vital when it comes to fostering good health care where a minimum of errors are made. What it means is that you should stick with the same doctor for as long as possible. Doing so is often difficult in our current system where patients usually rely on private health insurance to cover costs. Often a insurer will unexpectedly decide to drop a physician or physician group from its plan. Many times a physician's office will decide to no longer except a patient's health insurance. Those significant realities aside, the importance of doing whatever possible to keep seeing the same doctor cannot be overstated. This is especially true when it comes to your primary care or family physician.

A good friend of mine who is a board certified family practice doctor recently forwarded to me a video from ABC News discussing the importance of continuity of care and the family practice doctor. The video can be seen by clicking here. Continuous care with the same family doctor means regular medical follow ups. It means preventative and consistent care for chronic health issues like diabetes and allergies. There are few if any formulas for patient care. Different physicians have different approaches to patient care and treatment. There is nothing necessarily wrong with this. However, when a patient constantly switches from doctor to doctor with their different approaches to treatment and prescribing medication, confusion is all too often the end product. This leads to more medical errors and patient injury or death as a result.

Let's be frank, you do not need the very best doctor to be your family care physician (as if there were a way to measure what it means to be the best.) You need a competent, caring physician who knows you, your body and your medical history. In my view there is nothing more important to safeguard patient safety and to reduce preventable medical errors.