QUATERNARY: Medical Care Defined

Primary – Secondary – Tertiary Care

By A.I. and Staff Reporters

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In medicine, there are four levels of care: primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary. The levels of care refer to the complexity of the medical cases that doctors and healthcare providers treat and the skills and specialties of the providers. 

Primary care involves consulting with a primary care provider. Secondary care refers to seeing a specialist such as a dermatologist, neurologist or oncologist. Tertiary care is specialized care in a hospital setting such as brain surgery, renal dialysis or heart surgery.

Quaternary care is thus an advanced level of specialized care.

PRIMARY CARE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/09/27/cms-a-new-primary-care-medicine-model/

QUATERNARY CARE

Classic: Sometimes used as an extension of tertiary medical and surgical care in reference to advanced levels of medicine which are highly specialized and not widely accessed by most patients.

Modern: A higher level of specialized care within a hospital. Experimental medicine and some types of uncommon diagnostic or surgical procedures are also considered quaternary care.

According to the Wonca International Dictionary for General/Family Practice -Quaternary Prevention [QP] – is defined as: ‘Action taken to identify patient at risk of over medicalization, to protect him/her from new medical invasion, and to suggest to him interventions, which are ethically acceptable’.

Examples: Types of quaternary care include: experimental medicine, procedures and uncommon and specialized surgeries. This includes sub-specialty services such as advanced trauma care and organ [heart, lung, liver, kidney, etc] transplantation.

MEDICAL CARE: https://medicalexecutivepost.com/2024/07/29/survey-primary-care-doctors-deliver-most-medical-care/

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