Choosing a Primary Care Provider
It is important that each member of your family has a primary care provider. Your primary care provider (PCP) is the physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant who provides your care on a regular basis.
If you have not chosen a primary provider, please let us know whom you would like that person to be. We have included Provider Bios to help you make your choice.

Request your PCP when you make an appointment and we will do our best to have you see the same health care provider at each visit.
Our professional staff wants to work closely with you to make sure that you and your family stay healthy, get to know your provider and your children’s provider.

TYPES OF PRIMARY CARE PROVIDERS
Country Doctor Community Health Centers employs several different types of primary care providers. We have MDs, DOs, ARNPs and PAs. The designation is clearly displayed on their name tag. Listed below is a brief description of the training backgrounds for each type of provider. If you have questions, we encourage discussion of training and qualifications directly with your provider.

MD or DO
Medical Doctors or Doctors of Osteopathy have graduated from an accredited medical school. Our MDs and DO are Board Certified in either Family Medicine or Internal Medicine. They have attended medical school for 4 years followed by at least 3 years of specialty residency training.

MD Residents
Our residents are licensed physicians, who are continuing their training through a three-year commitment at Carolyn Downs Family Medical Center, participating in our Family Practice residency training program in affiliation with Swedish Medical Center.

ARNP
Nurse Practitioners have masters level education in nursing and are trained to perform physical examinations, order and interpret lab tests, write prescriptions and manage most common problems encountered in primary care.

PA
Physician Assistants are graduates of accredited physician assistant programs, attending school for 2-3 years. They are trained to perform physical exams, order lab tests, and make diagnoses, write prescriptions and manage most problems under the legal supervision of an on-site physician.

We actively participate in training medical students, nurse practitioner students, and physician assistant students.  You may be given the option of seeing a student. Their care is closely supervised by our regular medical providers.  And, you can always choose to see your PCP instead.