What
is Family Practice?
Family practice
is a primary health care specialty in which individuals and families
are provided continuing and comprehensive health care.
Family physicians
see people in their own communities, and treat patients of all ages,
both genders, all races and from all economic circumstances. We staff
private practices and community health centers, deliver babies, make
home visits, treat patients at every hospital in Rhode Island. We
work with schools and day care centers and nursing homes, and care
for entire families
from every community in the state.
Though family
practitioners represent only about 7 percent of the state's physicians,
we care for one third to one half of all Rhode Island adults, and
nearly a third of all Rhode Island children.
What are the
benefits of Family Practice?
It works.
Primary care in general, and family practice in particular, is the
cornerstone of successful health care systems all around the world.
A number of studies by internationally known researchers have shown
that access to primary care is a powerful determinant of health.
It's rational.
Family physicians help people and communities make choices that preserve
and augment health, while allowing those people and those communities
to match their resources to their needs.
It's comprehensive.
The family physician is a physician who is educated and trained in
family practice – a broadly encompassing medical specialty. Family
physicians possess unique attitudes, skills, and knowledge for providing
continuing and comprehensive medical care, health maintenance and
preventative services to each member of the family.
Why is Family
Practice so important to Rhode Island?
The United States
suffers from a persistent neglect of the importance of primary care,
to the detriment of the rationality and effectiveness of the health
care system. The neglect of primary care is a major cause of widespread
concern about health security for all Americans.
Rhode Island's
health care system has fallen victim to these national trends. We
have a hospital and specialty dominated health care system, though
we are a relatively low income state, and lack the means to support
the excess costs that a hospital and specialty dominated medical culture
incur.
The Rhode Island
Academy of Family Physicians is the 135-member Rhode Island affiliate
of the American Academy of Family Physicians, the largest primary
care physician organization in the United States. We are committed
to building a health care system that is comprehensive, family-focused,
high quality, and well organized.
This is one
in a series of reports designed to advance Family Practice and primary
care in Rhode Island's health care system, as well as to discuss public
health issues of importance to all Rhode Islanders.
We welcome
the opportunity to further discuss the issues presented here. We can
be reached by phone at 401-453-4176, or by email at info@riafp.org.
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