Primary & Preventative Care

Primary Care at NorthShore

Preventative Healthcare

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 7 out of every 10 deaths among Americans each year are caused by chronic diseases including heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Often times, preventative measures can be taken to avoid the onset of these diseases including a close relationship with your doctor and healthcare team.

The doctors and nurse practitioners at NorthShore will discuss ways to stay healthy such as healthy eating, regular exercise, avoiding tobacco use, and receiving preventative services such as regular wellness visits, required vaccinations and recommended screenings for all stages of your life.

Staying on top of your health year over year will help to avoid and/or delay common diseases caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. For those already dealing with chronic disease, it’s never too late. Your healthcare team at NorthShore can help to gain control of your disease to keep it from becoming worse or debilitating so you can lead a healthy, productive life and save cost on medical bills and medications.

What is prevention?

There are three levels of prevention:

1: Primary Prevention

Primary prevention is taking actions to prevent patients from getting diseases. Primary prevention typically happens with annual wellness visits with your doctor or nurse practitioner. These visits allow your provider to intervene before any major health problems occur through methods such as vaccinations, encouraging life style changes (better eating habits, reducing tobacco use), and eliminating behaviors that maybe linked to certain diseases or health conditions.

2. Secondary Prevention

Secondary prevention is attempting to detect disease early on and then prevent them from getting worse. Secondary Prevention involves receiving screening such as regular blood testing, monitoring blood glucose levels, breast cancer screening, osteoporosis screenings, vision screenings and more, to identify diseases in the earliest stages when signs and symptoms may not yet be present. Early detection allows your doctor or nurse practitioner to recommend treatment in order control the disease, prolong the progression and in some cases provide a cure.

3. Tertiary Prevention

Tertiary prevention is working to reduce symptoms of a disease you already have and improve your quality of life. Your provider will help to manage your disease in order to slow or stop the progression of the disease. This may come after receiving positive results from a preventative screening or receiving a diagnosis based on signs and symptoms. Either way, your doctor or nurse practitioner will work with you to provide the best treatment plan at each stage of your disease.