Primary Care Internal Medicine in Minnesota

Overview

The Division of Primary Care Internal Medicine (PCIM) at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, is composed of board-certified internists. Primary Care Internal Medicine serves individuals 15 years of age or older who reside in Olmsted County, Minnesota. The PCIM service area includes towns that share a border with Olmsted County. The division also serves Mayo Clinic employees and their dependents.

Primary Care Internal Medicine providers offer primary health care services, assuring health care that is consistently accessible, continuous, coordinated and comprehensive. Primary care is health care that considers the whole person rather than individual organs or systems. It involves a team approach that includes physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and nurses. These primary care providers offer services that include:

• Health care for existing medical needs
• Preventive care services
• Planning of care for chronic conditions
• Coordination of care with medical and surgical specialists
• Access to the most up-to-date medical information available
• Support for and information about patient self-care

Coordinated care

When other specialists, such as surgeons or internal medicine subspecialists, need to be involved, PCIM providers coordinate the patient's care and manage difficult medical problems that are associated with that care. The general internist combines the characteristics of a diagnostician and a consultant in disease prevention and health promotion. PCIM providers provide a continuum of care between the hospital and the outpatient setting and care for patients with multisystem disease.

PCIM providers are trained to manage all aspects of an adult patient's health care, including:

• Care of patients with undefined symptoms and complaints (shortness of breath, chest pain, abdominal pain, back pain, etc.) who are seeking a physician's help in diagnosing and coordinating their care at Mayo Clinic.
• Collaborative care of patients with chronic medical illnesses (high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, emphysema, etc.) throughout the various stages of their illness.
• Preventive medicine screening care (mammograms, Pap smears, routine colon cancer screening evaluations, cholesterol screening, blood pressure screening, etc.).

Think primary care first

Primary care practice hours are:

• Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
• Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday, 9 a.m. to noon

At Mayo Clinic, the following areas offer primary care:

• Primary Care Internal Medicine
  This department sees patients age 15 and over. Primary Care Internal Medicine providers are located in the Baldwin Building floors one, five and six, and at the Mayo Family Clinics Northeast and Northwest.
• Community Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine
  This group is for infants, children and adolescents through age 18. Providers are in the Baldwin Building, third floor, and the Mayo Family Clinics Northeast and Northwest.
• Family Medicine
  The Department of Family Medicine is available to patients of all ages. Family members in the same household who use Family Medicine may see the same provider. Locations include the Baldwin Building, second floor, Mayo Family Clinics Northeast and Northwest and Kasson Mayo Family Clinic.

If care is required from other physicians in Mayo Clinic's medical subspecialties and surgical departments, or comprehensive laboratory testing and imaging (radiology), the primary care physician can coordinate the care and manage difficult medical problems. Mayo Clinic's electronic medical record system allows all provider to share information, speeding the consultation process, if necessary.