The focus of primary health care is the prevention of diseases and other serious health challenges. One way by which Reliance Health Services offers preventive health care is comprehensive physical examinations, which are composed of a number of vital checks and information gathering to be complete. With a medical background in Preventive Health, Dr. Oketokun understands the importance of preventive health care, which reflects in the number and quality of health services that she provides to her patients.
A comprehensive physical examination involves the followings:
- Requisition of information on medical history and health habits: smoking, alcohol and drug use pose risks to health; family medical history also determine genetic predisposition to diseases. The knowledge of these helps to determine the necessity for further tests during and/or after the physical examinations.
- Vital signs: blood pressure, temperature, heart rate, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood oxygen level readings suggest wellness or otherwise and also determine the need for diagnostic tests to rule out serious health problems.
- Examination of the entire body: to ensure normal functioning. General appearance and posture are also suggestive of overall health. During this examination, Dr. Oketokun may:
- check your reflexes: for abnormalities that may suggest underlying neurological issues,
- examine your skin and nails,
- listen to your heart: to determine the presence or otherwise of heart murmurs or irregular heartbeat,
- listen to your lungs: to detect the presence or otherwise of lung diseases, for example, the detection of wheezing or cracking sounds in the lungs may suggest the need for a chest X-ray to determine the cause,
- check your balance: having difficulty with standing steadily (imbalance) could result from problems with the inner ear, for example, and also require further specific diagnostic tests,
- examine the head and neck: this involves checking the teeth, gums, nose, ears, and eyes to detect abnormalities, and
- check your abdomen: this involves palpating or tapping the abdomen to detect tenderness and/or fluid buildup in the abdominal cavity, or other abnormalities.
Physical examination also involve other gender specific examinations, for example, testicular and prostate examinations for men; and breast, pelvic, cervical, and vulva examinations for women, to name a few.