There’s No Place Like Home
If your household’s healthcare is feeling disjointed and disconnected—too many doctors, tests, and appointments to keep track of—you may need a medical home. Family practitioners have just what you’re looking for.

By Alyson Black

“If a patient is seeing an endocrinologist for diabetes, and a nephrologist because the diabetes has caused renal dysfunction, and a foot specialist because of the effects of diabetes, and separate from that has a breast mass—these are all individual issues, and specialists may not be contacting one another.”

Karen D. Young, MD, sounds almost breathless as she rattles off one complex patient scenario after another, each involving multiple doctors and subspecialties. These are the very types of situations she helps her patients face each day. As a family medicine physician, Young is part of a growing number of board-certified doctors knowledgeable in a broad range of healthcare needs, from infancy up through the geriatric population. The family medicine specialty emerged in the late 1960s, in response to a need for a general practitioner who also could handle women’s health and pediatrics. “We care for women and men, children and adults,” Young says. “We provide well and sick care, manage acute illness, and provide basic sports medicine needs. The door is open for everyone.”

Young, who trained at Overlook and did her residency here 12 years ago and has now returned to the Overlook community with a practice of her own in Maplewood, believes strongly in the idea of having what is known as a medical home—a single, centralized resource where all health-related information comes together. “The concept of a ‘medical home’ has an important place in medicine,” she says. “If you see several specialists, it’s easy to miss things. We coordinate care and make sure you have all your bases covered.

“We provide a comeback point. Care comes back to one person who can look at the whole picture. A family practitioner is a central point to gather information on a patient’s overall healthcare and make informed, cost-efficient, clear medical decisions.”

To that end, family practitioners must keep abreast of current issues and the general aspects of many different specialties so that they are properly able to refer patients to specialists. They also need to have a solid understanding of potential pharmaceutical interactions, particularly for patients who are seeing multiple specialists who are each prescribing medication.

This is often especially useful for older patients. “All of these specialists are giving them medicine,” says Young. “Someone needs to know about all of these medications and make sure they’re appropriate.” Young further points out that for elderly patients, family practitioners are able to assist in critical issues, like avoiding falls. “We also can help determine if the circumstances of daily living are appropriate,” she says.

A key component to family medicine, regardless of age, is prevention. Says Young, “Prevention of illness is just as important as treatment of illness—perhaps more so. We want to prevent illness through well exams, gynecological exams, vaccinations, and immunizations. We promote healthy lifestyles. In some cases, this might be as simple as asking, ‘Do you wear a seat belt? Do you wear sunscreen?’ Or it may be more complex, like getting patients to subspecialized care when they need it. Even a young, healthy adult needs someone to address prevention, to reduce the likelihood of coronary problems later on.”

Young makes it clear that family practitioners are interested in treating the whole person, the whole family unit. “Each person is very different,” she says. “Care is based on history, age, cultural background, and past tests. You get your primary care issues addressed and have a start-off point for having more specific questions addressed. And treating the entire family is a good way to get a great idea of that person’s background. In a very clear-cut way, you get to learn the family structure.

“This involves social medicine as well as physical medicine,” Young says. “Remember, when a person is under stress or is ill, it doesn’t affect just that one person—it affects the whole family.”

For a referral to a family medicine practitioner, call (800) 247-9580.