Knox Community Hospital’s Primary Care department helps patients when they have health problems, but it also tries to keep them from getting sick in the first place, Dr. Shawn Reed told the Mount Vernon News.
“I recommend that everyone have a primary physician for their overall health and also as a safety net in case they do get sick, so they will have someone to reach quickly,” he said.
A primary care physician who sees patients on a regular basis gets to know them and can more easily spot any changes in their health, said Reed.
“Getting a baseline exam so that you have a reference point to look back on is valuable,” he said. “There are conditions that we will check that really don’t have symptoms. If your cholesterol is high, often the first time that presents is when a person has a heart attack or a stroke. If we can pick up on those kinds of things early and intervene, we can make a difference.”
Having a primary care physician can actually help lower health-care costs in the long term, the physician said.
“For example, it’s much less expensive to check a person for osteoporosis and build up their bone strength to prevent a fracture than it is to treat them for falling and breaking a hip. … Then, they have to go through surgery and rehabilitation,” Reed said.
Primary care physicians can also help patients control chronic conditions such as diabetes, kidney disease and heart disease.
“At the end of the day, what myself and all the other primary health physicians at KCH want is for patients’ quality of life to be good so they can do the things they want to do and not be limited by health problems,” Reed said.
His advice to patients is to take time each day to improve their health.
“Do some walking or aerobic exercise to get your heart rate up for 20 minutes,” the physician said. “Try to eat a more balanced diet. Everything you do as far as physical activity and eating healthy will pay dividends in the future.”
