Our Services

The adult well examination incorporates evidence-based guidance toward the promotion of optimal health and well-being, including screening tests shown to improve health outcomes.

A great way to stay healthy is to take advantage of the preventive and wellness visits covered by Medicare. These visits, called Welcome to Medicare and Annual Wellness, are different than an annual physical exam. They have specific benefits and coverage defined by Medicare. Here’s what to expect:

Welcome to Medicare

You are eligible for the "Welcome to Medicare" preventative visit within the first 12 months of enrolling in Medicare Part B. During this visit, your doctor will:

• Review your health and medical history
• Check your height, weight, and blood pressure
• Calculate your body mass index (BMI)
• Conduct a simple vision test
• Review potential risk for depression and your level of safety
• Discuss disease prevention, health, and wellness improvements

You will receive a written, personalized plan of care outlining screenings, immunizations and other preventive services you may need. Additional health concerns may require a separate follow-up appointment—ask your provider's office when you call to schedule your Welcome to Medicare visit.

Annual Wellness Visit (AWV)

You are eligible for a Medicare "Annual Wellness Visit (AWV)" visit every 12 months if you have been enrolled in Medicare Part B longer than 12 months. During your AWV, your doctor will:

• Review your medical and family history
• Develop or update a list of your providers and any prescriptions you’re taking
• Check your height, weight, and blood pressure
• Discuss disease prevention, health, and wellness improvements
• Develop a screening schedule for preventive services and immunizations
• Ask you to fill out a questionnaire called a "Health Risk Assessment"
• Additional health concerns may require a separate follow-up appointment. Ask your provider's office when you call to schedule your Annual Wellness Visit.

What’s the difference between the Welcome to Medicare Visit and the Annual Wellness Visit?

Your first Annual Wellness Visit has a lot in common with the Welcome to Medicare Visit. The main difference is timing. If you are newly enrolled in Medicare, you are eligible for the one-time Welcome to Medicare Visit only within the first year. The Annual Wellness Visit can take place every 12 months, and the first visit can be scheduled either 12 months after the Welcome to Medicare Visit or after more than 12 months of your enrollment in Medicare.

How are the Welcome to Medicare Visit and the Annual Wellness Visit different from a yearly physical?

An annual physical is a much more extensive examination than the Welcome to Medicare Visit or Annual Wellness Visit. In addition to collecting your medical history, it may also include a vital signs check, lung exam, head and neck exam, abdominal exam, neurological exam, dermatology exam and extremities exam.

Clinical laboratory tests are not included in either the Welcome to Medicare Exam or Annual Wellness Visit. If your provider needs to evaluate or treat a medical problem during one of these wellness visits, he or she will need to charge for this separately, and the tests will be applied to your deductible or copay.

The benefits of well-child visits include tracking your child’s growth and development. Your medical provider will review your child’s growth since the last visit and talk with you about your child’s development. These visits are a time to review and discuss each of the important areas of your child’s development, including physical, cognitive, emotional, and social development.

Another benefit of a well-child visit is the opportunity to talk about prevention. For many children in the United States, the most common cause of harm is a preventable injury or illness. The well-child visit is an opportunity to review critical strategies to protect your child from injury, such as reviewing car seat use and safe firearm storage. The well-child visit is an opportunity to ensure your child is protected from infectious diseases by reviewing and updating his or her immunizations. If there is a family history of a particular illness, parents can discuss strategies to prevent that illness for  heir child. Healthy behaviors are important to instill at a young age, and the well-child visit is a time to review these important behaviors, such as sleep, nutrition, and physical activity.

During the teenage years, well-child visits offer adolescents an opportunity to take steps toward independence and responsibility over their own health behaviors. Adolescent visits provide an opportunity for teenagers to address important questions, including substance use, sexual behavior, and mental health concerns.

Physical examination and screening tests are also a part of the well-child visit. Your child’s visit may include checking blood pressure level, vision, or hearing. Your medical provider will do a physical examination, which may include listening to the lungs and feeling the abdomen. Screening tests can include tests for anemia, lead exposure, or tuberculosis.

Well-woman visits include a full check-up, separate from any other visit for sickness or injury. These visits focus on preventive care for women, which may include:

• Services, like shots, that improve your health by preventing diseases and other health problems
• Screenings, which are medical tests to check for diseases early when they may be easier to treat
• Education and counseling to help you make informed health decisions

Acute conditions are severe and sudden in onset. This could describe anything from a broken bone to an asthma attack. We offer early morning, same day and evening appointments to assist you and your family with your acute care needs.

Chronic diseases are defined broadly as conditions that last 1 year or more and require ongoing medical attention or limit activities of daily living or both. A chronic condition is a long-developing syndrome, such as diabetes or asthma.

Whether your child is getting ready for sports, school, or camp, a physical is the first step in making sure they’re healthy and ready for any activity.

Everyone needs vaccines. They are recommended for infants, children, teenagers, and adults. Vaccinations are a very important part of family and public health. Vaccines prevent the spread of contagious, dangerous, and even deadly diseases. These include measles, polio, mumps, chicken pox, whooping cough, diphtheria, and HPV.

Lab work and blood tests are ordered by your healthcare provider for a wide range of reasons, such as monitoring conditions, confirming a diagnosis, screening for a disease, or helping to rule out or diagnose an illness. When you provide blood, a throat swab, urine or other specimen, the sample is sent to a laboratory where it will be examined under a  microscope. Some test results will be ready the same day while others may not be available for a few weeks. The results are sent to your doctor who will discuss them with you.

If you have an injury or illness that might be covered by workers’ compensation, it’s important to take the right steps when seeking medical treatment. Getting appropriate medical care is important, not only for your health and recovery, but also for maximizing your workers’ comp benefits and making sure that you’re properly compensated for your injuries.

The choice of a contraceptive method is a complex decision, and your medical provider has an important role in providing information and supporting your decision making about contraceptive methods through contraceptive counseling.

If you just enrolled your child in day care, you might be surprised to learn that your day care might require your child to have a physical exam before they are allowed to attend. If this is the case, be sure to check with your daycare facility to see exactly what is required. Each day care is different; While some facilities may only need a physician’s note saying the child has passed their health exam, others may need to see an up-to-date record of your child’s vaccinations or may even have their own form for the physician to fill out.

Prior to your scheduled surgical procedure, your surgeon may require you to have a pre-op exam to gather some basic information about you and your health and to answer your questions. Pre-op is the time before your surgery. It means "before operation." During this time, you will meet with one of your doctors who will ask you questions and do testing such as blood and urine tests. Some also require chest X-rays or EKGs (electrocardiograms).

Living with diabetes is a challenge and one that requires attention to specific aspects of health on a daily basis. Self-care is important in order to reduce complications that can arise from diabetes when blood sugar levels are not managed well. We understand the struggle of living with diabetes every day and the frustration that comes with it. But we also understand the rewards of managing diabetes. At Fallbrook Family Health Center, we are committed to improving the health of people at risk for diabetes or those living with diabetes. We have a Diabetic Educator on staff who can assist you with all of your diabetic needs, either in individual clinic sessions or in our diabetic education classes.

Like every other part of your body, your skin needs regular care and attention. Skin lesion removal is a procedure or surgery to remove growths on your skin. You may have a skin lesion removed because it is too big, bothersome, or uncomfortable. Or you may have a lesion removed because it could be cancerous or precancerous. Often, your medical provider can remove simple skin lesions during a routine visit.

At Fallbrook Family Health Center, we're open Monday-Friday with a full medical team and X-ray equipment on site, so your broken bone can be examined right away. The term "broken bone" is synonymous with "fracture" as they both can
happen any time direct, excessive force is applied to the bone. Depending on the level of force, the bone may break, shatter, or crack.

While broken collarbones, broken arms, broken wrists, and broken ankles are the most common, a broken bone can occur at any location where too much force is applied.

Different types of injuries exert force on the bone in different ways, which can result in different types of breaks. While there are numerous types of broken bones, below are some of the most common:

• Stress fracture: Repetitive motion causes a small crack in the bone.
• Simple (closed) fracture: The skin and surrounding tissue remains intact despite a broken bone.
• Open or compound fracture: A piece of bone protrudes through the skin.
• Greenstick: The bone bends and breaks only on one side. This break is commonly observed in children.

If you have a tear or cut in your skin, tissue and/or muscle, you may need laceration repair, which includes cleaning, preparing and closing the wound. Our medical providers can offer treatment for these types of injuries during our regular office hours.

We offer radiology services at our clinic Monday-Friday from 7am-5pm. Our medical providers are able to order chest, bone and joint x-rays on-site and have the results within minutes. The availability of radiology in our clinic (and not at a third-party facility), allows us to provide you with quicker diagnosis and treatment – often while you are being examined.