Annual Physical & Preventive Care
The yearly visit is the cornerstone of family medicine: a chance to catch problems early, stay current on screenings, and build a relationship with a doctor who knows you.
We're YOUR doctor, from everyday wellness to complex illness.
Family medicine is the foundation of lifelong health: prevention, wellness, and a trusted relationship with a physician who knows you. Whitestone Health connects you with alliance physicians who care for the whole person.
- Primary Care
- Hospital Care
- Whole Family Care
Understanding Family Medicine
Family Medicine: medicine's true generalist
Family medicine is defined by breadth, not by an organ, an age, or a single setting.
A family physician cares for newborns to older adults, and walks with the same patient through every stage in between. It is the one specialty defined not by an organ or an age, but by relationship and breadth of care.
Depending on their training and their community's needs, family doctors practice across primary care, hospital medicine, obstetrics, emergency and urgent care, procedures, sports medicine, and palliative care. In rural areas, they may even provide critical care. They are the closest thing to a true generalist in medicine: adaptable clinicians who can meet patients wherever, and however, care is needed.
Primary care
Obstetrics
Emergency Room
Surgical Assist
Palliative & Hospice
Critical care
Hospital medicine
Urgent Care
Proceduralist
Sports medicine
Pain Medicine
FamilyDoctors
Why it matters
Family medicine is a mindset
Family medicine isn't a place; it's a way of practicing. Wherever a family doctor works (clinic, hospital, delivery room, or ER), they bring the same lens: the whole person, the long view, and the connections between it all.
The whole person, always
Family doctors are trained to treat the person, not just the problem in front of them. It's the same instinct in clinic, on the ward, or at the bedside.
The long view
Even in a single encounter, a family doctor weighs your whole arc: what came before, what's ahead, and how today fits in.
Care in context
A family doctor treats you in the context of your life: family, home, work, and community, never in isolation.
Connecting the dots
Trained as generalists, family doctors see how the pieces fit and coordinate the rest across specialties, settings, and systems.
Across a lifetime
One doctor, every stage of life
Family medicine is the only specialty that cares for the whole family across every age. The same trusted relationship grows with you, from the first checkup to the complex years, so your care is never a series of disconnected appointments.
10 to 12
Infancy & childhood
Well-child visits, vaccines, growth and development, and the everyday illnesses of childhood.
213 to 18
Adolescence
Physicals and sports clearances, mental health, and guidance through the changes of the teen years.
319 to 64
Adulthood
Preventive care, screenings, and management of chronic conditions like blood pressure and diabetes.
4Any age
Family & pregnancy
Family planning, women’s and men’s health, and supporting your whole household under one roof.
565 and up
Older adulthood
Coordinating complex care, medications, and staying active, independent, and well.
Find Your Doctor
Our Family Doctor Network
A growing network of family doctors with shared values, caring in and for their communities.
What we help with
Conditions We Support
Family Medicine can help across a range of conditions. Filter by area to see how we can help.
High Blood Pressure
Often called the "silent" condition because it rarely causes symptoms, high blood pressure raises your long-term risk of heart attack, stroke, and kidney disease. Family medicine catches it early and manages it for life.
Post-Stroke Care
Recovery continues long after the hospital. Family medicine coordinates the medications, rehab, and risk-factor control that protect your progress and help prevent a second stroke.
Seasonal Allergies
Sneezing, congestion, and itchy eyes can disrupt daily life and sleep. Family medicine helps you find the cause and the right relief, from everyday remedies to longer-term options.
Anxiety
Persistent worry, tension, or panic that interferes with daily life is common and very treatable. Family medicine offers a trusted first step toward calm and effective care.
Asthma
Asthma makes airways tighten and inflame, causing wheezing, coughing, and shortness of breath. With the right plan from your family doctor, most people control it and live fully active lives.
Where to go
Family doctor, urgent care, or specialist?
Knowing where to go saves time, money, and stress. For most of life's health needs, including many urgent ones, your family doctor is the right first call and your home base for everything else.
Start here
Family Doctor
Your first call, even for many urgent needs
Best for
- Checkups, physicals, and preventive screenings
- Ongoing conditions like blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol
- Many same-day, acute problems, often by walk-in or a quick phone call
- Frequently can do everything urgent care does, and more, because they know your history
- Mental health, and coordinating any specialist care you need
Urgent Care
Best after-hours or when your office is closed
Best for
- Evenings, weekends, or when your family doctor's office is closed
- Minor injuries, sprains, and small cuts
- Colds, flu, and infections that cannot wait for an opening
- Not for life-threatening emergencies
Specialist
Deep expertise in one area
Best for
- A specific, complex problem in one organ or system
- Care that needs advanced testing or procedures
- Usually best reached through a referral
- Works alongside your family doctor
A good rule of thumb: call your family doctor first. If their office is open, they can usually handle it, often the same day, so you may not need urgent care at all. They will always tell you if you should be seen elsewhere. For any life-threatening emergency, such as chest pain, difficulty breathing, stroke symptoms, or severe injury, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Ready to Take the First Step?
Connect with a Whitestone Health alliance physician practicing family medicine.
Frequently asked
A family medicine physician is trained to care for people of all ages, from newborns to older adults. Rather than focusing on one organ or age group, they provide comprehensive, continuous care for the whole person and the whole family, and coordinate any specialist care you need.
Both are primary care, but family medicine physicians care for patients of every age, including children, while internal medicine physicians focus on adults. Family doctors are trained as true generalists across the widest range of ages and settings.
Family doctors handle a very broad range of needs: preventive care and physicals, common illnesses, and chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol, thyroid problems, asthma, and anxiety or depression. They also coordinate care with specialists when needed.
In most cases no. Family medicine is primary care, so you can typically schedule directly. Whitestone Health connects you with alliance family physicians; use Find a Provider to start.
Whitestone Health is an alliance of independent providers who share a whole-person philosophy. Our family medicine physicians join as individual alliance members, keeping their own practice while sharing the alliances values, so you get connected, trusted care.
Are you a family doctor interested in becoming a Whitestone Health member? Membership info