IMHO that's often a bad strategy. Subspecialists may have a "buck stops here" approach (they have to in some cases) and tend to be more aggressive in chasing down every remote possibility with every available tool. While that is sometimes necessary, the primary doctor can often do some filtering, try some simpler things, and help you know what's safe and what's not.
In addition, it is not always easy for a layman to even know which subspecialist is most appropriate. Would you go to a neurologist for a pain above your eyes? Or maybe an ENT doc for sinus trouble. Maybe an opthalmologist. Abdominal pain might be urinary, gastrointestinal, stress, infectious, etc. And frankly cardiologists hate, for example, patients who refer themselves for chest pain which is obviously muscular, or otherwise noncardiac.
I prefer (both as a physician and when I need to be a patient) to have a primary internist I trust, and let him help me make those decisions.
And who will oversee preventive stuff, probably the most important of all. Subspecialists don't even stock immunizations, etc. and they are less knowledgeable in almost every discipline outside their field than is a sharp primary care doctor.
Too bad there is such a shortage of primary care.
My return visit is set for 5 years.
