The Importance of Primary Care

Brittany Lyons, FNP

When it comes to your health, prevention is critical to ongoing wellness. That’s why primary care providers are focused on providing high-quality health care that keeps you well.

A Wellness Exam

Annual exams are important even if you’re healthy. During this yearly visit, your primary care provider will discuss preventive care, including health maintenance activities like diet and exercise. If you have any concerns, you can discuss those together as well. Your provider may also perform health screening tests or draw maintenance labs. Because it’s more cost effective to prevent disease than it is to treat, most insurance companies will cover one wellness visit each year.

Prevention Throughout Your Life

Primary care can be very different depending on your stage of life. Children have primary care visits more frequently in infancy and early childhood for routine vaccines, disease prevention and monitoring of developmental milestones. For adult women, an annual exam may focus on reproductive health. This might include a discussion of your family planning needs as well as appropriate screenings for reproductive cancers and disease. As we age into older men and women, more screenings and immunizations are recommended to prevent illness, identify early indicators of problems and maintain good quality of life.

Your Health Team

If you have an illness or other health issue, your primary care physician may refer you to a
specialist, such as a cardiologist for coronary artery disease or an endocrinologist for diabetes.

Collaboration and communication between these medical providers is crucial in the coordination of your care. This team works together to keep you in optimal health.

Brittany Lyons, FNP, is a family nurse practitioner caring for patients at the BJC Medical Group at St. Peters on the Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital campus. To learn more, visit
BJCStCharlesCounty.org or schedule an appointment with Brittany by calling 636.916.9615.

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