The second way to approach the question of the value of primary care is by recourse to empirical evidence. Clinical decision making in primary care differs from that in specialty care. Primary care has at its core a sustained personal relationship between patient and clinician. Primary care does not consider mental health separately from physical health. Important opportunities to promote health and prevent disease are intrinsic to primary care practice.
Primary care is information intensive.
In the committee's view, no health care system can be complete without primary care. In the United States, the time is right for primary care to undergo more systematic and creative development and to expand as the foundation of health care delivery. It is amenable to improvement through methods of science, implementation of key supporting elements of the health care infrastructure, and use of relevant management and organizational principles. Much of the remainder of the report explores these poin ts in more detail. Key aspects of these trends and themes are explored in Chapter 5.