Family Medicine Services
Providing quality family medical care is at the center of what we do.
Family medicine is a service within primary care that involves the overall well-being and health of an individual no matter their gender, age, or stage in life. This service includes:
- Building a health history with a provider/location who can better understand your unique health profile throughout your life
- Guiding you at the appropriate stages of life to participate in preventive care health screenings and vaccination schedules
- Assisting with diagnosing health concerns as you encounter them and helping you to manage those concerns along the way
- Treatment of short-term illnesses and minor injuries
- Management of chronic diseases
Why is it important for me or the ones I love to establish medical care with a Family Medicine/Primary Care Provider?
Establishing care with a primary care provider allows you the advantage of building a long-term relationship with a provider to keep you healthier throughout your life span and reduce your overall medical care costs along the way. A primary care provider can advise you of ways to improve your health, treat you when you get sick, and help you get more advanced care when you need it.
What is primary care?
Primary care is an individual’s entry point into the health care system, allowing for a relationship to be established with a medical provider who partners with you, and those you love, to guide/promote/diagnose/manage various health experiences and conditions along your lifespan.
As we grow, we face new health-related experiences and challenges that we need medical support to overcome, heal from, or manage. A primary care provider is a partner to helping us live our healthiest life.
What is acute care?
Acute care is a branch of secondary health care where a patient receives active but short-term treatment for a sudden illness or minor injury.
What is emergent care?
Emergent care is medical care that directly addresses threats to life, limb, or eyesight. In situations that are severe and life-threatening, seeking medical attention from a hospital emergency room or calling 911 for assistance is the appropriate channel to receive the medical attention necessary.
What is preventive care?
As medical science has continued to progress, the development of processes and procedures such as routine health exams, health screenings, immunizations, and more, have increased our ability to prevent/early detect/manage health conditions before those conditions escalate to a more advanced stage where treatment outcomes involve treatment plans that are more severe on our bodies and more costly to receive.
What is a health screening?
Health screenings are tests that have been developed to look for diseases before you have symptoms. The purpose of a health screening is to find a begin treatment for a health problem before it progresses to a more advanced stage of illness.
What is a referral in healthcare?
A referral is a written order from your primary care provider for you to see a specialist or receive a certain type of medical service in order for you to be treated for or a health condition, or to assist your primary care provider with diagnosing a medical condition.
What is a chronic condition/disease?
A chronic condition/disease is one where the condition/disease lasts for more than a few months and has long-lasting health effects.
How do I schedule an appointment with one of your providers?
All of our locations are accepting new patients, and we would be happy to assist you.
To schedule an appointment, please call the location of your choice to speak with a member of our front office staff, who will be happy to walk you through the process to establish care with us. If you have a certain provider in mind, please ask our front office associate if that provider is accepting new patients. If you do not have a specific provider in mind, our trained staff will be happy to help match your medical care needs with the right provider.
What should I expect at a family medicine appointment if I am a new patient?
As a new patient to our practice, we ask that you arrive 15 minutes prior to your scheduled appointment in order to process your new patient paperwork. You will be asked to provide your photo identification and medical insurance information at the receptionist desk. Please bring a list of all medications you take, both over-the-counter and prescribed, to provide to our nursing staff at the beginning of your appointment.
Your new patient appointment will take approximately a half-hour to establish a strong knowledge of your medical history. An assessment of your current condition and services considered necessary by your provider will take place, and your patient care journey will begin.
What should I expect at a family medicine appointment as an established patient at SWVHS?
As an established patient with our practice, we ask that you provide your photo identification and medical insurance information to our front office representative during the check-in process. If you have had any changes to your contact information since the last time you visited us, please let us know during this time.
Your established patient appointment will take approximately 15 minutes with your provider. This allows the opportunity to discuss any changes in health you have experienced since your last appointment, the opportunity to notify your provider of any recent hospital or urgent care visits you have experienced, and an update if any of those visits outside of our organization included a medication both over-the-counter and prescribed.
What is a Patient-Centered Medical Home?
Here at Southern West Virginia Health System, our main focus is on you and the quality of care that you receive.
Southern West Virginia Health System is a patient-centered medical home (PCMH). A patient centered medical home is not a specific place, but it is a model of care that our organization is proud to follow and achieve. Being a patient-centered medical home ensures that patient care is of high quality, patient-centered, cost effective, culturally appropriate, and team-based throughout our health system.
What is a sliding fee program?
Being a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), we operate in a manner that no patient will be denied services due to an individual’s inability to pay. Our patient sliding fee program is designed to assist patients who meet certain eligibility requirements based on household income and the number of people living within the household, to receive services at a reduced cost.
What kinds of insurance do you accept?
Being a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC), we operate in a manner that no patient will be denied services due to an individual’s inability to pay. For those who are uninsured or underinsured we offer a sliding fee scale for those who qualify. For those individuals who are insured we accept:
- Private/ Commercial Insurance
- Medicare
- Medicaid
- WV CHIP
Do you have a pharmacy on-site at your locations?
We do! We have six pharmacies, four with drive-thru access:
- Lincoln Primary Care Center – Hamlin – Drive-Thru Access
- Dennis’ Pharmacy – Hamlin – Drive-Thru Access
- Alum Creek Pharmacy – Sand Plant – Drive Thru Access
- Man Pharmacy – Man – Drive Thru Access
- Madison Medical Pharmacy – Madison
- Gilbert Pharmacy – Larry Joe Harless Community Center
Should your provider prescribe a medication during your appointment, our pharmacies are equipped to handle your pharmaceutical needs. This provides you with an excellent opportunity to fill your prescription in a timely and efficient manner so that you can get back to your personal schedule with less hassle. If your location of choice does not have a pharmacy, we would be happy to send your prescription(s) to the pharmacy of your choice.
