primary care

noun

Definition of primary care

: health care provided by a medical professional (such as a general practitioner, pediatrician, or nurse) with whom a patient has initial contact and by whom the patient may be referred to a specialist often used before another noun a primary care physician

called also primary health care

— compare secondary care, tertiary care

Examples of primary care in a Sentence

He provides primary care to inner-city patients.

Recent Examples on the Web

Meanwhile, Styne has recruited three primary care providers to help him run the clinic every week on Tuesday mornings. Naseem S. Miller, orlandosentinel.com, "New hepatitis C cases increasing in Florida; local doctor helps treat uninsured," 23 Aug. 2019 That means primary care providers need to get better at recognizing the signs of suicide risk. Lizz Schumer, Woman's Day, "Is Suicide Preventable? Experts Weigh In," 22 Aug. 2019 Many of those people use the emergency room as their primary care provider, which costs an exorbitant amount of money paid for by taxpayers. Dp Opinion, The Denver Post, "Letters: Caring about cost of health care; A price too high to pay?; Make classrooms manageable (8/16/19)," 16 Aug. 2019 But patients should speak with their primary care providers before discontinuing daily aspirin use or starting it. Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY, "Should you take a daily aspirin or not? What doctors are saying," 23 July 2019 Sydenham Health Hou has signed a lease for a 5,630-square-foot building at 2621 Joanel to establish a luxury medical clinic that will provide concierge primary care services. Katherine Feser, Houston Chronicle, "Real estate transactions: Ontellus, PBK, ZXP Technologies ink big leases," 19 July 2019 The Deaconess Foundation has unveiled its Deaconess Health Check mobile van, offering primary care services to individuals across Greater Cincinnati. Kim Sykes/share, Cincinnati.com, "Deaconess Foundation launches new mobile health check unit," 9 July 2019 The ability to afford your prescriptions and go to a primary care provider, to be -- the ability to see a mental health care provider. Tom Benning, Dallas News, "All 3,520 words spoken by Julián Castro and Beto O'Rourke at first Democratic presidential debate," 27 June 2019 Most people who have asked their primary care providers for exemptions are turned down out of hand. Cat Ferguson, The Mercury News, "California’s vaccine battle: Here are the doctors behind Bay Area students’ medical exemptions," 20 June 2019

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'primary care.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

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First Known Use of primary care

1967, in the meaning defined above

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More Definitions for primary care

primary care

noun

English Language Learners Definition of primary care

: medical care from the doctor who sees a patient first and provides basic treatment or decides that the patient should see another doctor

primary care

noun

Medical Definition of primary care

: health care provided by a medical professional (as a general practitioner or a pediatrician) with whom a patient has initial contact and by whom the patient may be referred to a specialist for further treatment often used attributively primary care physiciansprimary care practiceprimary care medicine

called also primary health care

— compare secondary care, tertiary care