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Capitalization - The patient was advised to follow up with Primary Care - mom2sadie


Posted: Feb 28, 2012

"The patient was advised to follow up with Primary Care." I have been capitalizing Primary Care....Is this correct? Need second opinion. Thanks!

no - NM

[ In Reply To ..]

YES - BOS3

[ In Reply To ..]
YES, if "primary care" refers to a section/department/area within the facility.

NO, if they mean "primary care provider/physician" and have just cut it off/shortened it.

That is according to BOS3 and is one of the FEW rules in there that are actually correct!

An easy way to remember - Happy MT Robin

[ In Reply To ..]
What I always use is this - if you can insert a name in the space for the department or unit that you think might be capitalized and if it makes sense, then yes, capitalize it.

In your example, "the patient was advised to follow up with Primary Care" - insert "the patient was advised to follow up with Dr. Jones." Makes sense, so yes, you would capitalize it.

If the sentence read "the patient was advised to follow up with the primary care department" you wouldn't be able to say "the patient was advised to follow up with the Dr. Jones."

That's the guideline that I use because I can't actually remember rules or formulas or ratios (which made my accounting classes miserable) and I rarely get corrected on it.


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