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Preventive care

Preventive care is the largest part of what we do, and it’s the part a rushed practice gets wrong first. A physical here runs an hour to ninety minutes — long enough to look at your whole picture rather than checking boxes and sending you for labs.

Prevention isn’t only screening for disease. It’s preventing a fall, a car accident, a medication interaction, a crisis at home. Those take a conversation to catch, and the conversation is what our appointments are built around.

Your annual physical

An annual physical at Northeast Concierge Medicine covers six areas, and takes as long as it takes:

  1. Your history and how you actually live. Existing conditions, exercise, sleep, alcohol and tobacco, stress, what’s changed since last year. This is the longest part, and the most useful.
  2. Skin examination. Checking moles, growths, and anything new or changing.
  3. Abdominal examination. Assessing organ size, position, and texture by hand.
  4. Vital signs and neurological check. Blood pressure, heart and respiratory rate.
  5. Laboratory work. Blood work, with results explained to you rather than posted to a portal and left there.
  6. Immunizations and prescriptions. Vaccines brought current, prescriptions reviewed and refilled.

We also go through where you stand on age-appropriate screening — colonoscopy, mammography, bone density, lung and skin cancer screening, hearing and vision — and make the referrals for anything you’re due for.

What to bring to your physical

  • Your insurance card
  • A list of your current medications, supplements, and anything over the counter — the bottles themselves are better
  • Any symptoms you’ve noticed, even the ones you’ve decided are nothing
  • Your diagnosis history and recent test results, if you have them
  • Device information, if you have a pacemaker, defibrillator, or implant
  • Your questions, written down. There’s time for all of them.

Prevention beyond the exam room

Our providers practice the bio-psycho-social model of care, which in plain terms means asking about the parts of your life that decide whether a care plan survives. Can you afford your medications and your groceries both? Is anyone checking on you? Should you still be driving at night? Is the rug at the top of the stairs going to be the thing that ends your independence? Falls, hospitalizations, medication errors, and social crises are all preventable, and none of them get caught in a ten-minute visit.

Home Visit Program

Our Home Visit Program is available to our patients as an additional enrollment and fee, for those who can’t easily get to the office. Dr. Candow runs the program on a regular circuit through the towns around Putnam, and patients enrolled in it receive a visit four times per year. Each visit runs thirty minutes or longer.

The Home Visit Program is for patients limited by:

  • Immobility or frailty
  • Serious or unstable health problems
  • Poor eyesight
  • Cognitive decline
  • Recovery after surgery or a hospital stay

What the Home Visit Program covers:

  • Primary care visits and routine follow-up
  • Physical exams and preventive screening
  • Medication review, refills, and reconciliation
  • Diabetic and nutrition counseling
  • Coordination with visiting nurses, home health aides, and physical, occupational, and speech therapy
  • Referrals to and coordination with specialists

No two house calls are the same, because no two homes are. A visit shows what an exam room can’t: the stairs, the lighting, whether the pill organizer is being used, what’s in the kitchen, and who’s actually there to help. We also see patients at local nursing and rehabilitation facilities, so a move or a rehab stay doesn’t mean losing your physician.

To learn more and enroll, call us at (860) 315-9026.

Get the kind of primary care you deserve

Call (860) 315-9026 or click below to get started.

REQUEST TO JOIN OUR PRACTICE

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is an annual physical at Northeast Concierge Medicine?
An annual physical runs an hour to ninety minutes. A new patient’s first visit runs about ninety minutes total — thirty minutes with clinical staff and an hour with the physician.
Does insurance cover an annual physical?

Most commercial plans generally pay for an annual physical examination, and Medicare covers an Annual Wellness Examination. Northeast Concierge Medicine bills your insurance for the visit as any practice does; your membership fee is separate and covers the added time and access.

Do you make house calls, and who qualifies?
Yes. Northeast Concierge Medicine provides house calls in the Putnam, Connecticut area for patients who can’t easily travel to the office because of immobility, frailty, poor eyesight, cognitive decline, or serious illness. Patients enrolled in the home visit program receive a visit at least every three months.
How often should I have a physical?
Most adults should have a preventive visit annually. Adults managing chronic conditions typically need to be seen more often — how much more depends on the condition and how stable it is, which is a conversation to have with your physician.