Experience of Lifetime Health Maintenance Program: An Observational Study of a 30-Year Period of Outpatient Primary Care in a Tertiary Hospital

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the clinical content of patients registered with the Lifetime Health Maintenance Program (LHMP) under the care of a single family physician who introduced and operated the program in Korea at a tertiary hospital for over 30 years. METHODS: We analyzed the electronic medical records of 745 patients who had registered for more than 3 times with the LHMP under the care of a single family physician between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2019. We reviewed medical records from June 1989, when the hospital was established, to February 2022. The participants’ age at the time of LHMP enrollment, sex, initial consultation date, final consultation date, and consultation content were evaluated. RESULTS: Patients visited the LHMP for various reasons, including acute symptom management, chronic disease management, psychiatric consultation, counseling on health behaviors, health checkups, and vaccination. The top five diagnoses for acute symptom management were upper respiratory infection, abdominal pain, dizziness/vertigo, headache, and lower back pain, whereas those for chronic disease management were dyslipidemia, hypertension, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis/osteopenia, and diabetes. More than one in five patients received psychiatric consultation and counseling on health behaviors. As the duration of the program enrollment increased, the proportion of patients visiting the LHMP for acute symptoms, vaccinations, and health checkups also increased. Furthermore, the number of categories of consultation content increased for each patient. CONCLUSION: The LHMP emphasized the need to systematize regular primary care physicians in Korea. Policy changes are necessary to strengthen primary care, and the LHMP serves as an intermediate step in organizing regular primary care physicians in Korea.