CommonSpirit Health Celebrates Primary Care Week

by Dr. Thomas McGinn, EVP, Physician Enterprise
Dr. Nana Coleman, SVP, Academic and Faculty Affairs
Dr. Gary Greensweig, Chief Physician Executive
Barbara Martin, PhD, ANCP, SVP, Advanced Practice

This week we celebrate Primary Care Week across CommonSpirit Health.

Primary Care Week is intended to recognize the important contribution of Primary Care Physicians and APPs everywhere. Care for the vast majority of our patients at CommonSpirit begins with our primary care providers. We are grateful for who they are and the essential services and care they provide.

We are primary care providers too. We understand and value their lived experiences as trainees, physicians and advanced practice providers.

Few things are more rewarding, fulfilling, or challenging than Primary Care. There is a very large degree of unpredictability and challenges in the day and never enough time. There are a multitude of health maintenance guidelines that we manage along with a mix of acute and chronic care issues that sometimes crop up together, not to mention the need for documentation.

We also know the joy that comes with being a primary care provider: managing multiple complex medical problems, multi-generational care, continuity, helping families grow, getting through difficult times together, patients as friends, and the privilege we have everyday to be part of our patients' and their families' lives.

Primary care providers are at the heart and soul of CommonSpirit and we honor and thank them for it.