primary care

American  

noun

1. medical care by a physician, or other healthcare professional, who is the patient's first contact with the healthcare system and who may recommend a specialist if necessary.

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Other Word Forms

• primary-care
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of primary care

First recorded in 1970–75

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

primary care

There are about 2,000 safety-net clinics in California that deliver primary care to underserved populations.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026

Jefferies estimates Medibank’s primary care business will generate an operating profit of 52 million Australian dollars in FY27.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 26, 2026

Among low-income pregnant individuals, the approach was linked to better postpartum health care and stronger connections to primary care that continued well beyond childbirth.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 6, 2026

“Even in primary care, even though we’re supposed to be preventive-focused, it ends up being very disease-focused,” she told me.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026

We’ve had people come in saying they want to sue some specialist, and we’ll say, ‘We don’t think that doctor was negligent. We think it’s your primary care doctor who was at fault.’

From "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell

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