Primary health assessment
The focused health-status review on this page. Narrower, quicker, built to be repeated, because its job is catching what changed since last time.
Primary health assessments at home
A primary health assessment is a focused check on where your loved one's health stands right now: current status, medical history, and — most importantly — what's changed. Paramedics are trained to take a fast, accurate history in the field; at Salus we use that same skill calmly, listening for the details that often hold the earliest warning signs.
Definition
What is a primary health assessment?
A primary health assessment is a focused home visit that reviews a person's present health status, their medical history, and what has shifted since anyone last looked properly. It is shorter and narrower than a full wellness visit, and its purpose is to surface changes early and put them in front of a physician.
Salus performs it across Miami-Dade and Broward as part of in-home preventive care. We assess, document and refer. We do not diagnose conditions, prescribe, or alter anyone's treatment.
The review
What we review
Three questions structure the visit: how are they now, what is their background, and what is different from last time.
- Current health statusHow they feel today, how they are sleeping, eating, moving and breathing, and what they call normal for themselves.
- Medical historyConditions, procedures, hospital stays and specialists involved — gathered once, properly, so it stops being retold from memory.
- What has changed recentlyThe heart of the visit. New tiredness, a cough that stayed, appetite that fell away, a cane suddenly used indoors.
- Symptoms in their own wordsRecorded as described, not translated into shorthand that loses the detail.
What's included
What the appointment covers
- Current health status review
- Medical history discussion
- Changes-in-condition screening
- Symptom review & documentation
- Flags prepared for physician follow-up
Included in all memberships · See all pricing →
Choosing between the two
How this differs from a comprehensive wellness assessment
Families ask this constantly, and the names do not help. The difference is scope: one looks closely at the person, the other looks at the person and everything around them.
Comprehensive wellness assessment
The broader whole-picture visit: health plus medications, balance, the home itself and daily living. It sets the baseline focused reviews are later compared against.
Most families begin with the comprehensive visit once, then use primary health assessments to keep track. Unsure which you need? Book the wider one first — judging what changed is hard without knowing where things started.
Flags, not findings
What gets flagged to their physician
A flag is an observation worth a doctor's attention, not a conclusion about its cause. That distinction matters, and we hold to it.
- A new symptom, or an old one that has worsened
- Measurements sitting away from their own usual pattern
- Confusion over which medications are being taken, and when
- Changes in speech, memory, balance or mood
- Something mentioned to us but never to their doctor
- Follow-up appointments quietly not attended
Neurological observations may lead us to suggest a dedicated neurological assessment, medication concerns a full medication review.
Alongside, not instead
How it fits alongside their own doctor
Their physician holds the diagnosis, the prescriptions and the plan. Nothing we do changes that. What this visit adds is time and proximity: an hour in the living room, weeks before the next appointment, with someone trained to notice when a person is not quite themselves.
The result is a better-briefed appointment. Instead of "she seems a bit off lately", the physician receives dates, observations and a written account of what changed and when. It works especially well after a discharge, where post-hospital follow-up and ongoing wellness monitoring cover the same gap.
Salus visits are booked in advance and preventive by design. They cannot substitute for emergency medical services. If something looks like an emergency, dial 911 first.
Questions
Primary health assessments, answered
No — it complements it. We assess and document, then flag anything that needs medical attention so your loved one's physician gets better information, sooner.
If nobody has taken a full look yet, start with the comprehensive wellness assessment. If there is already a baseline and you want to know what has moved since, this is the one.
That is a useful result and we write it down as one. A documented stretch of stability is exactly what makes a genuine change stand out later.
Yes. We take the history at their pace and, with permission, alongside a family member or caregiver who can fill the gaps. Familiar surroundings help considerably.
Where to read more
Guide
5 Subtle Warning Signs of a Health Emergency in Older Adults
What "not quite themselves" tends to look like up close.
Explainer
What Is Preventive Paramedic Care? A New Kind of Healthcare, Explained
Why emergency training suits a visit that is meant to prevent one.
Get a clear picture of how they are doing
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