If you aspire to lead a healthy life, your primary care doctor will be your dependable guide to give you reliable health information as well as resources. There are many reasons to have a primary doctor, let’s have a glance on four major reasons:

• Helps you monitor your health

Your primary care doctor makes sure that you remain healthy by asking you to do regular screenings for common chronic illnesses. They will ask you to do regular checkups for chronic illnesses such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, arthritis, respiratory problems like COPD or even cancer screenings including mammograms. By regular visits to your primary care doctor you can detect these illnesses at the very beginning and control them in a better way. Studies have shown that those who have primary care physicians are healthier than those who do not have one.

• Your entire medical history can be found in one place

One of the main benefits of having a primary care doctor is that you can have an extensive record of your entire health history, including lab tests that you’ve had, previous screenings that you have had at one place. Based on the medical history your primary care doctor can also refer you to a specialist if needed. They can also work with these specialists to ensure that your medical information reaches correctly to help you improve your health condition.

• Fewer ER visits

Studies have shown that individuals who do not skip their appointments with primary care doctors have fewer episodes of hospitalization and need fewer visits to the ER than those who do not have primary care physicians. Individuals who do not have a primary care doctor might take longer to see a doctor after noticing the early symptoms and this delay can often be serious and require hospitalization.

• Pocket-friendly

Seeing a primary care doctor on a regular basis can save you a lot of money. One reason is that when you see your primary doctor regularly, he/she will suggest you to conduct regular screenings that can help in preventing a serious illness from developing and save you a lot of money that otherwise you will need to spend on costly treatments.