Primary Care

The following definitions relating to primary care should be taken together. They describe the care provided to the patient, the system delivering care, and the clinicians providing primary care. Together they form a framework in which patients can access efficient, equitable, and effective primary care services of the highest quality, leading to better care, better health, and lower costs.

Family physicians provide services commonly recognized as primary care. However, the terms, “primary care” and “family medicine” are not interchangeable. “Primary care” does not fully describe family physicians’ activities nor the practice of family medicine. Similarly, primary care departments do not replace the form or function of family medicine departments.

Primary care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by physicians and their care teams who are accountable for addressing a large majority of personal health care needs, developing a sustained partnership with patients, and practicing in the context of family and community. The care is person-centered, team-based, community-aligned, and designed to achieve better care, better health, and lower costs. In addition, primary care provides patient advocacy in the health care system to accomplish cost-effective and equitable care through the coordination of health care services. It also promotes effective communication with patients and families to encourage them to be partners in health care.

Primary care includes health promotion, disease prevention, health maintenance, counseling, patient education, diagnosis and treatment of acute and chronic illnesses in a variety of health care settings (e.g., office, inpatient, critical care, long-term care, home care, schools, telehealth, etc.). Primary care is performed and managed by a personal physician who often collaborates with other health professionals and utilizes consultation or referral as appropriate.

A primary care practice serves as the patient's entry point into the health care system and as the continuing focal point for all health care services. Primary care practices provide patients with ready access to their personal physician and care team. Care delivered in the primary care setting is person- and family-oriented, continuous, comprehensive, equitable, team-based, collaborative, coordinated, integrated, accessible, and high value.

Primary care practices address both differentiated and undifferentiated problems and manage the vast majority of patients' concerns. They are generally located in the community they serve, facilitating access while maintaining a wide variety of specialty and institutional consultative and referral relationships. In addition, the primary care practice structure often includes a team of physicians and other health professionals working together to meet patient needs.

A primary care physician is a specialist in family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, geriatrics, or combined internal medicine-pediatrics who serves as the patient’s first point of contact for undifferentiated health concerns. Primary care physicians are trained and skilled in providing comprehensive, whole-person care with any undiagnosed (“undifferentiated”) sign, symptom or health concern not limited by problem origin (biological, behavioral, or social), organ system, or diagnosis.

Primary care physicians devote most of their practice to providing primary care services to a defined patient population. The primary care practice style is such that the personal primary care physician assumes ongoing responsibility for the patient’s care maintaining continuity through sustained relationships over time and addressing preventative, acute, and chronic needs across inpatient and outpatient settings. They ensure coordination of care across the health system, including specialists, hospitals, and community services. Primary care physicians advocate for the patient in coordinating the use of the entire health care system to benefit the patient.

Primary care physicians are trained through residency, and when applicable, fellowship to deliver integrated, comprehensive, first contact, and continuous primary care services.

Primary care physicians play a central role in reducing the burden of chronic conditions through preventive care, health education, early detection, risk mitigation, proactive screening, accurate diagnosis, evidence-based treatment, and continuous monitoring throughout the lifespan of the individual, their families, and community as a whole. They lead care teams, coordinate with subspecialists, and address behavioral, social, and environmental determinants of health.

Physicians without training in the primary care specialties of family medicine, general internal medicine, general pediatrics, geriatrics, or combined internal medicine-pediatrics may provide specific patient care services that are typically delivered within primary care. These physicians may focus on specific patient care needs related to prevention, health maintenance, acute care, chronic care, or rehabilitation. These physicians, however, do not offer these services within the context of comprehensive, first contact, and continuous care.

Non-primary care physicians' contributions may be necessary to meet specific patient needs. However, the absence of full-scope primary care training requires that these individuals work in close consultation with primary care physicians. An effective primary care system may utilize these physicians as members of the health care team while a primary care physician maintains responsibility for ensuring coordination, continuity, and comprehensiveness of care for the patient.

Nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and other clinicians may render primary care services to meet the needs of specific patients. They should provide patient care as part of a collaborative team where the primary care physician maintains overall responsibility for the patient’s care.

Patients are best served when their care is provided by an integrated practice care team led by a primary care physician. Primary care teams may include a broad range of health professionals, such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, social workers, pharmacists, behavioral health practitioners, and community health workers. These professionals work together as an interprofessional, interdependent team in patients' best interests to support comprehensive care delivery. They manage the care of an individual patient and a population of patients using an interprofessional, collaborative approach to health care. The team should support enhanced communication and processes that empower all staff to effectively utilize the skills, training, and abilities of each team member to the full extent of their professional capacity.

*In this document, the term physician refers only to Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) and Osteopathy (D.O.).

(1977) (July 2026 BOD)