Secondary care
| Secondary care |
|---|
| See also |
Secondary care is professional health care provided by facility or specialists, such as radiologists or cardiologists, who did not have any contact with patient in the first place, but were referred by primary care medical workers. Sometimes it requires further diagnosis (after primary care) and treatments usually using specialized laboratory facilities and equipment, and sometimes there is need for quick and direct treatment.
Who is secondary care for?
Secondary care is for patients with diagnosed issues such as serious and severe illness, injuries and more. These conditions are less frequently experienced by most patients with the need for specialized medical care in the hospital emergency department, but are well known, and common for the secondary care medical personnel.
What secondary care requires?
Due to the need for quick action there is main need for skilled personnel attendance during:
- intensive care
- surgeries
- childbirth
- radiation therapy and others, such as medical imaging services
Specialists working in secondary care area need to be:
- remarkably specialized
- have great knowledge in certain field
- and always be ready for action
Secondary care areas
Breast areas:
- mammography
- ultrasound
- magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
- fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC)
- core-needle biopsy
- triple assessment
Also used in:
- Cardiology
- Ear, nose and throat illnesses
- Endocrinology
- Gastroenterology
- Haematology
- Neurology
- Obstetrics and Gynaecology
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopaedics
- Osteoporosis
- Pediatrics
- Renal Medicine
- Respiratory Medicine
- Urology
- Vascular Surgery
The differences between primary, secondary, tertiary and quaternary care
Primary care is preventive care, first call diagnosis and treatments for most common health problems. When there are some complications with diagnosing or treatment possibilities then primary care personnel referrals patients upon to secondary care where all the specialists are and can be done in most full-service hospitals. Further if the problem is unusual and beyond second care specialists patient is referred to tertiary care. This is something that can be provided mostly in different speciality facilities. Tertiary care is needed in health needs such as open heart surgery. Last but not least, there is quaternary care that is for most complex level of surgical and medical care, usually it is provided at research institutions or universities.
References
- Akbari, A., Mayhew, A., Al‐Alawi, M. A., Grimshaw, J., Winkens, R., Glidewell, E., ... & Fraser, C. (2005), Interventions to improve outpatient referrals from primary care to secondary care. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (3).
- Amanullah, K. G. M. (2014). Analysis of patient safety measures in the private secondary care hospitals of Nanded City.
- Hopcroft, K. (Ed.). (2000). The GP Guide to Secondary Care Investigations. Radcliffe Publishing.
- Kronenfeld, J. J. (1997). The changing federal role in US health care policy. Greenwood Publishing Group.
- McWay, D. C. (2013). Today's health information management: An integrated approach. Cengage Learning.
- Myers, T. (2006). Mosby's dictionary of medicine, nursing & health professions (Vol. 1). Mosby Inc.
- Reid, S., Wessely, S., Crayford, T., & Hotopf, M. (2001), Medically unexplained symptoms in frequent attenders of secondary health care: retrospective cohort study. Bmj, 322(7289), 767.
- Steventon, A., Bardsley, M., Billings, J., Dixon, J., Doll, H., Hirani, S. & Rogers, A. (2012), Effect of telehealth on use of secondary care and mortality: findings from the Whole System Demonstrator cluster randomised trial. Bmj, 344, e3874.
- Turnock, B. (2012). Public health. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
Author: Mateusz Fudala
