Institute:Office of National Coordinator (ONC) Workforce Training Curriculum
Component:Introduction to Health Care and Public Health in the U.S.
Unit:Introduction and History of Modern Health Care in the U.S.
Lecture:Components of Health Care Delivery and Finance
Slide content:Some Definitions of Care Primary care: Initial and ongoing care, typically provided in an office or clinic Secondary care: Specialty care provided in the community Tertiary care: Highly specialized care usually provided by referral in a large, typically academic, medical center 15
Slide notes:It is also important when talking about health systems to understand the different types of care: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary care is that initial and ongoing care that is typically provided in a physicians office or in a clinic, and is sometimes provided by non-physician practitioners. But primary care is also the ongoing longitudinal care that may take place in a clinic or in an academic medical center. However, the type of care is characterized by an ongoing relationship between the patient and either a single or multiple health care providers. Secondary care is the specialty care that is provided in the community, such as when a patient is referred for a test to a local specialist or hospitalized in their local community for a test or surgical procedure. Finally there is tertiary care. This is highly specialized care that is usually provided by referral to some sort of large medical center. Often these large medical centers are academic medical centers but they don't necessarily need to be. The key of tertiary care is that the patient is away from the primary and secondary care that they've received initially. Sometimes primary and secondary care can be provided in academic medical centers and in hospitals, but tertiary care is that highly specialized care offered by many subspecialists who are not readily available in the patient's community. Health IT Workforce Curriculum Version 4.0 15