Three Levels of Care

Healthcare is the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease, illness, injury, and any other physical or mental health issues in patients. Healthcare is provided by doctors, chiropractic, dentistry, nursing, pharmacy, allied health, and other healthcare provider. This is where the three levels of care are started: Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary.

Primary care is given when a patient has either a minor injury, or illness. Primary care is when you see your primary care physician which provides ambulatory care. This type of care is done fast, and is not expensive (Timmreck, 2003).

Primary care physicians check the patient to see how bad the illness or injury really is and the physician will decide on a treatment plan for the patient. If the patient cannot be taken care of by the primary care doctor, then the patient is referred off to a specialist who can treat the patient.

In regards to the brain tumor patient, the physician would order a brain scan. Once the scan is done and the radiologist reviews the results and a tumor is confirmed, then the patient will need to move to the secondary level of care.

Secondary care is where the patient is referred by the primary care level. This is a specialist who is able to treat the health problem that is serious and not common for a primary care provider to treat. An example would be a cardiologist, urologist, or neurologist. Secondary care setting is usually a hospital environment. Many of secondary care providers do not always work in a hospital, unless it is a psychiatrist. Also, the secondary care level usually is done through referrals (Timmreck, 2003).

Through the secondary level of care, the specialist who would be the neurologist will go over the symptoms and history that the patient is having and evaluate to see if these symptoms are related to the brain tumor. The neurologist will talk to the primary care physician to let him or her know that there is a diagnosis of a tumor and the patient will follow up with the primary care doctor and the specialist, because there will be several steps in the care that is needed (Timmreck, 2003).

The third level is Tertiary level. This is a specialized consultant that is for inpatients and on referral from a primary or secondary health professional either in a facility that has health care employees and facilities that have more medical technology to investigate and provide treatment. An example would be a neurosurgeon to treat our brain tumor patient (Timmreck, 2003).

Once the neurologist has found where the location of the brain tumor is, then the patient will have to have surgery to have it removed. The patient will have the surgery done at a hospital by a surgeon and an MRI will need to be done before the surgery is performed that day. This is a very complicated surgery because it can involve a lot of risk. Patients that have