For any parent, keeping the health of the entire family is a top priority. However, juggling schedules in work, school, and other activities between family members can be a challenge when trying to squeeze in medical appointments, especially if your family has consulted with different doctors.
If this is a struggle that is familiar to you, then you may want to consider visiting Zest Clinic, a family clinic located in Marine Parade.
What is a family clinic?
A family clinic provides medical services that are focused on the overall health care of an individual and each member of the family. A family clinic covers a wide range of medical practice related to:
- General Practice
- Men’s Health
- Women’s Health
- Paediatric Health
They can also offer various medical services, such as:
- Diagnostic tests
- Diet improvement
- Injury rehabilitation
- Physiotherapy services
- Stress management
- Weight loss management
What are the benefits of going to a family clinic?
Choosing to go to a family clinic can benefit you and your family in several ways. Here are three reasons:
1 Family health clinics are convenient.
Family health clinics cater to other health services that doctors in general practice would usually recommend as part of the treatment plans for certain medical conditions.
The most common specialists in other branches of medicine that are usually a part of family clinics include chiropractors, pathologists, physiologists, psychologists, and radiologists.
Family health clinics often have their own imaging equipment and laboratories, which can be very convenient when you are required to undergo further tests to make a diagnosis.
All of your medical records are also kept in one system and are easily accessed by your doctors each time you visit. You no longer need to keep your own file or make a trip to several doctors or labs just to get information that is necessary for your record.
In addition, setting an appointment for you and the members of your family can be done in a breeze when you all need to go for your regular check ups together.
2 Family clinics can cater to walk-in patients.
Many doctors today are so busy that they require their patients to book a consultation ahead of time. Waiting for your appointment date can worsen an illness. If you need an immediate medical appointment, family clinics usually cater to patients who walk-in for consultations.
Family clinics have multiple general practitioners who can accommodate conditions that are not an emergency and can do in-person consultations on the same day of your visit even without booking an appointment prior.
3 Family health clinics offer the same high quality care you would get from any type of clinic.
While there is exactly no perfect doctor or clinic, you can expect to receive high quality care from doctors in family clinics. The physicians in family clinics are highly trained to attend to patients from all walks of life, whether young or old.
You can also expect some family clinics with branches across several locations to follow the same rules and regulations when carrying out services to ensure that their patients. Knowing that the way a clinic operates is similar to another branch one has previously visited can ease anxiety especially during your first visit.
What should you look for when choosing a family clinic?
Here are the things you should consider when choosing a family clinic:
1 Provider’s credentials
We all go to see a doctor whenever we are feeling sick so that we can get treatment and be well. If a doctor is not competent in the field of medicine that they are practising, then chances are your illness will only progress and you will only be wasting your time and money.
Before walking in or making a family clinic appointment, take some time to check the credentials of the doctors that serve in their clinic. Thanks to technology, a lot of family clinics now have their own websites where they share the specialization of their affiliate doctors.
2 Location
Choosing a clinic that is conveniently located near your house can be advantageous for you, most especially when you need to commute to the clinic with a sick family member. Also check that the clinic premises are accessible for patients with mobility disability.
3 Professionalism
You may want to get a feel of the doctors and staff’s professionalism during your initial visit. Observe how the patients are treated. Are the doctors and staff mindful of the way they act and converse with and around their patients?
Are you given proper instructions especially when filling up forms during your first visit? Are they attentive to the questions that you have? Is your medical information treated with confidentiality? Do you feel rushed during your consultation?
4 Gold standard equipment and facility
Family clinics may offer other types of health services that require the use of medical tools and equipment. If your treatment requires you to undergo a specific test or treatment that uses medical equipment, you can ask if the equipment used in the clinic is up to date.
You can also inquire about how they maintain their equipment and facility, given that they may serve many patients at any given time.
5 Accessibility of your medical records
Family clinics usually store their patient’s medical record in a system that can be accessed through a web portal. This makes things convenient for you as you can opt to login to your account to check on medical prescriptions or results from diagnostic tests.
You do not need to commute to the clinic to retrieve them. Visiting your doctor for a medical appointment will likewise be easier as you no longer need to bring copies of your records as all of your information can be accessed by your doctor in the family clinic’s database.
Final word
Investing in each of your family’s health is a great gift that you can give to them. A family clinic can be your partner in ensuring that your family can conveniently access quality and affordable healthcare from trusted medical doctors.
A family clinic can help provide management and treatment for conditions that are not needing emergency care and are not life threatening.
