If you’re making healthcare decisions — like finding a doctor — for the first time, you may not know where to start. But without a doctor, you might turn to urgent care centers or the emergency room when you get sick, choose to self-treat, or ignore your symptoms altogether.

Recent studies show this is particularly true of millennials, or people born between 1981 and 1996, according to Pew Research Center. Fewer millennials visited a primary care physician in the last five years compared with non-millennials.

Moreover, American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) studies show that millennials research symptoms and treatments online before seeking medical attention, and many of those individuals choose to self-treat.

“We want to change this trend by educating millennials and first-time healthcare consumers about the value of establishing a relationship with a primary care physician,” says Aniruddha Gollapalli, MD, a primary care physician with Memorial Hermann Medical Group. “When a doctor knows patients’ personal and family health history and regularly sees them when they are well, we’re in a better position to detect changes in their health and treat potential problems.”

Research, such as Healthy People 2020 from the U.S. Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, shows that this type of preventive care enhances overall health and most often leads to better outcomes when illnesses and conditions develop.

“It’s like routine car maintenance,” Dr. Gollapalli says. “If you ignore your oil levels or forget about your tires, your car is likely to break down, often at a higher cost than had you maintained routine service.”

Annual well patient visits to a primary care doctor include lab work to check blood for irregularities and a thorough examination to measure body weight, blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen levels, as well as evaluations of patients’ skin, eyes, mouth, abdomen. and respiratory function.

Primary care physicians also assess patients’ mental health and lifestyle risk factors, and they educate patients about optimizing their health with adherence to vaccination schedules and routine health screenings. Moreover, primary care physicians can guide patients to specialized care, if necessary, and pave the way for expedited appointments in most cases.

“It’s great to have at our disposal the broad pool of specialists available within the Memorial Hermann network,” Dr. Gollapalli says. “Because we have a strong relationship with these colleagues, we can more easily provide relevant information to them about patients and help expedite and facilitate care.”

Dr. Gollapalli recommends speaking to friends and loved ones about their primary care physician to gauge whether a doctor may be a good fit for you, and then checking your insurance plan to be sure the doctor is part of that plan.

Searching for doctors on a hospital or health system website like memorialhermann.org will also net valuable information, such as insurances accepted and whether the doctor is seeing new patients. These websites often also reveal whether scheduling appointments online is possible and reviews from other patients.

“These tools can be a starting point in your search for a doctor,” Dr. Gollapalli says, adding that some online reviews may not be as helpful as first-hand recommendations from friends and family.

“Searching for a primary care physician doesn’t have to be daunting,” Dr. Gollapalli says. “Invest now in researching information about a doctor before you need care. That’s a surefire way to invest in your health and ensure optimized and convenient care when you do need it.”

To find a primary care physician from Memorial Hermann, visit memorialhermann.org/primary-care.