General practitioners are usually the physicians most frequently consulted for physical complaints. If they cannot treat them themselves, they coordinate further treatment to specialists and coordinate the treatment of their own diagnostics with the findings of the specialists.
What is general practice?
General practitioners are usually the physicians most often consulted for physical ailments. If they cannot treat them themselves, they coordinate further treatment to specialists. Human medicine is made up of 32 different specialties. One of these sub-specialties is general medicine. A general practitioner, also called a family doctor or general practitioner, is the first point of contact for patients when they are ill or have complaints that require medical treatment. General practitioners are thus, as the name suggests, responsible for the general health of patients. In most cases, they have their own practice as general practitioners. General practitioners have a regular patient base, usually over many years, and know the medical history of their patients and their families in detail. This personal connection makes them an important confidant for patients. Based on the often very subjective description of complaints, a general practitioner must make the correct diagnosis and initiate treatment or, if necessary, refer the patient to a specialist for further examination or treatment.
Treatments and therapies
The specialty of general medicine involves providing basic care to all of their patients, whether they have an acute complaint, an emergency, or preventive or follow-up care. They are trained to treat conditions that do not require expertise beyond basic care. If they cannot provide this in the context of primary care, they refer their patients to specialists who have specialized knowledge and experience in the relevant field. The boundaries between general practice and specialist medicine are often fluid and not clearly defined. Although the health insurance funds and associations of SHI-accredited physicians specify in their service catalogs which group of physicians can bill for which services, many specialties are dependent on referral by a general practitioner. In this way, general practitioners assume a steering function in medical care and ensure step-by-step diagnostics, working together with specialists as needed to fulfill their work mandate in the interests of patients and the demands placed on them by society. As primary care physicians, they care for patients and their families and, when necessary, make home visits when patients are so ill that they cannot visit the office. They write prescriptions for medications and other treatments such as massages, etc., and resume treating patients after a referral to a specialist and diagnosis has been made. They administer injections, e.g. as part of vaccination protection. General practitioners provide medical care of the highest possible quality, with the patient’s best interests in mind, but at the same time making sure that it is appropriate, also in terms of the cost factor. However, cost pressure and, as a result, less time for the individual case often ensure that there is little time for a holistic view of the patient.
Diagnosis and examination methods
A careful and comprehensive diagnosis is the most important prerequisite for adequate treatment. A number of examinations can take place in a general medical practice with appropriate technical equipment. Among the most common examination procedures in general medical practices are preventive examinations. Many diseases can be detected and treated at an early stage through regular preventive examinations. For this reason, preventive health care plays an important role in general medicine. General practitioners advise their patients on which preventive examinations are useful for them, and in some cases carry out these examinations themselves, e.g. check-ups, examination of moles to assess a risk of skin cancer, etc. If patients suffer from heart complaints or cardiac arrhythmias, an ECG can provide information about possible coronary heart disease (CHD).Since it is sometimes not possible to assess exactly in which situations the complaints occur, a long-term ECG is ordered if necessary, which records cardiac activity over a period of 24 hours and can provide information about possible causes. Standard examinations include a blood pressure and pulse measurement. In this way, high blood pressure (hypertension) or low blood pressure (hypotension) can be detected. A long-term blood pressure measurement over 24 hours can provide more precise indications. If breathing problems are present, the heart and lungs are listened to with a stethoscope. Listening will detect irregular heart sounds or abnormal breathing sounds. Many diseases, such as inflammations, can be detected on the basis of blood, urine or stool tests. For this purpose, blood is taken from the patients and either examined in the in-house laboratory or forwarded to an external laboratory. In the case of respiratory diseases, a throat swab is also taken to rule out any streptococcal infection. Many general practices have sophisticated technical equipment and can also perform ultrasound and X-ray examinations themselves. Some are also able to perform pulmonary function tests, which are important for people with chronic respiratory conditions such as asthma. This functional testing provides information about the progression of bronchial and pulmonary diseases such as asthma and COPD and shows the response to medication prescriptions. It is not uncommon for general practitioners to have additional training in various areas, such as acupuncture or homeopathy, and then they are allowed to make diagnoses and treat complaints in these specialties as well.
