The Institute of Medicine, a prestigious group composed of nationally recognized Family Physicians, obstetrician-gynecologists, and nurse practitioners recently released an updated definition of primary care:

"Primary Care is the provision of integrated, accessible health care services by clinicians 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."

• Integrated means comprehensive, coordinated, and continuous care in a variety of settings across any stage of the life cycle.



• Accountability encompasses the concepts of quality care, patient satisfaction, utilization management and ethical behavior.



• Majority of personal health care needs implies that problems are not restricted to any single organ system, or by gender, or disease entity and may include



• physical, mental, emotional, and social concerns



• acute and chronic care of differentiated and undifferentiated conditions



• preventive, patient education, and health promotion services



• coordination of consultations and referrals



• taking care of 80 to 90 percent of patients complaints without referral



• Sustained partnership emphasizes longitudinal care with active participation by the patient.



• Primary care is an ongoing process that delivers care and a relationship to individuals, families, and populations of patients.



• It includes the delivery of care to individual patients in context of their community, and recognizes that communities will differ based on location, ethnic and cultural composition, and numbers of underserved patients.

Primary care is thus defined not by who provides it,
but what services are delivered.

• Primary care providers are key players in the future of health care.



• Evidence suggests that restructuring and strengthening the role of primary care practitioners in the health care system will facilitate access to affordable, high quality health care for all Americans.



• Data suggests that access to primary care is associated with:



• improved health care outcomes



• lower mortality rates



• reduced emergency department use



• decreased rates of preventable hospital admissions



• less invasive, lower cost care



• no differences in quality of care when compared to subspecialist care



• higher patient satisfaction