Medicines for good health

Retail health clinics are all the rage these days, but not everyone sees their popularity as a positive

In a world where dinner comes in a paper bag handed through a drive-thru window at McDonald’s and ATM’s man virtually every street corner, retail medical centers are giving new meaning to one-stop shopping. In addition to bread, orange juice and toilet paper, people can add flu shots, routine blood tests and treatments for a variety of other everyday ailments to their grocery lists.

With hair and nail salons, vision centers, restaurants and banks already opening shop right inside big box stores like Wal-Mart, it should come as no surprise that the health industry would be next in line, but the thought of retail clinics is a little unnerving to many primary care physicians. In Colorado alone, there are 15 SmartCare Family Medical Centers in Wal-Mart Supercenters, including ones in Loveland, Greeley and Brighton.

“SmartCare is another option for access to health care for the community located where people live, work and shop,” said Rebeca Imgrund, chief nurse practitioner from SmartCare Family Medical Centers. “It’s very convenient when you have an acute condition.”

The first SmartCare clinics opened in 2006 and the Greeley and Loveland clinics have been open just over a year. The clinics, which are staffed by nurse practitioners, require no appointment and charge about $65 for an average visit. By not having physicians on staff, the clinics are able to keep the cost down and do not require as much expensive medical equipment. Common things like the stomach flu, coughs, sore throats and physicals are the types of things these retail clinics treat. For more complicated things, patients are referred to primary care physicians.

“Our goal is to refer them to the level of care that is appropriate,” said Dr. Brian Erling, SmartCare’s National Medical Director.

Erling, who has a background working in emergency rooms, said he would see people come into the hospital and rack up a $400 bill for a soar throat because of a lack of access. Though retail clinics attempt to address this issue, many physicians do not necessarily think it’s the best solution.

Dr. John Bender, Larimer County Medical Society president and medical director of Miramont Family Practice in Fort Collins, said there is a concern that these retail clinics will negatively impact primary care physicians.

“Considering we have had 16 primary care physicians go bankrupt, prematurely retire or close their doors and no solo clinics left in Fort Collins, the concern is that 10 years from now, when our neighbors get sick they will go to a retail clinic and when they are really sick, they will try to go to the emergency room and everyone will try to send a report back to the primary care physician who no longer exists,” Bender said. “This will adversely impact the longitudinal and continuity which is the foundation of a healthy society.”

Others, like Dr. Ken Olds of the Family Physicians of Greeley, feel that retail clinics lack the personal information needed to take care of patients.

“As a family doctor, I believe that continuity is a good idea,” Olds said. “Our physicians will take care of an entire family over a long period of time. They know about your allergies and your past health. I don’t see how a retail clinic could offer that.”

Erling said that it isn’t about taking patients from primary care physicians, but improving access for people who may not have it and making it more convenient. Imgrund agreed, adding that about 30 percent of the people who visit the clinics do not have a primary care provider and might otherwise end up at the emergency room door.

SmartCare is but one of many retail health companies that is continuing to expand across the nation with talks of expanding into Fort Collins and Colorado Springs. According to the Convenient Care Association, there are more than 200 clinics operated by over a dozen companies across America.

“The reality is there is going to be more of them,” Bender said. “The question is whether they will delay people from getting the preventative services they need from a primary care physician.”

As the retail clinic industry has continued to grow, it has also caught the eye of many lawmakers. In early December, GOP lawmakers purposefully selected a SmartCare center as the site to announce their version of health care reform.

Sen. Steve Johnson, R-Fort Collins, said when they rolled out their agenda, the retail clinic was a perfect fit because it makes health care more affordable and is also a great avenue for education on health-related issues.

“I think it’s a good development as long as the quality is good.” he said. “A lot of people, if they didn’t have this option would go without care.”

Dr. Edward Norman, president of Big Medical Group, met with SmartCare officials before the clinic opened in Loveland. He said the emergent medical clinic and pediatric at Skyline Center for Health, which is located next to the Wal-Mart Supercenter, has not been impacted by the retail clinic.

“If you have good doctors and well-run clinics, then you don’t have a problem,” he said.

He said that retail clinics serve a small niche right now, but could be a benefit for a city where there is poor access to primary care services. However, he doesn’t think they will be a dominant force in the medical market.

“The only emotional feeling I have is I don’t think it provides very good continuous care,” Norman said. “I think this is a form of medicine does not even attempt to do this. Medicine is more than just going to McDonald’s and getting a hamburger. You need to find a physician you trust.”

By Erin Frustaci

Computerized physician order entry (CPOE) has been a key component of patient safety since the publication of the Institute of medicine’s 1999 report, To Err is Human. This report found that in hospitals throughout the United States, up to 98,000 individuals die each year from preventable mistakes.

CPOE is more about clinician acceptance and workflow than it is about software and hardware platforms. But the ability of software and hardware to successfully support the clinician, with dependency and speed, is absolutely critical to support the CPOE effort in a hospital.

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Due to our expertise in software integration we work with Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) who focus on CPOE. Our engineering, production, and quality control processes make Seneca Data the logical choice for partners looking for stable platforms and custom image work. We will house your custom written programs and based on your specifications, we will leverage our technical expertise to co-engineer solutions specifically for your business!

by www.senecadata.com/markets

Why Seneca Data for Healthcare?

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Electronic Medical Record

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Aerotherapy. Among the hundred or more types of healing offered to the sophisticated is aerotherapy. Obviously, aerotherapy means treatment by air, but in this instance hot air is particularly concerned. The patient is baked in a hot oven. Heat relieves pain and produces an increased flow of blood to the part heated. The blood aids in removing waste products and brings to the part the substances that overcome infection. There is nothing essentially wrong about hot air therapy.

Since the time of Hippocrates and indeed even in Biblical legend men have availed themselves of the healing powers existing in nature. The light and heat of the sun, the burning steam from natural hot springs, the dry air of the desert, and even the buffeting of the waves of the sea have been used for physical stimulation in overcoming disease. It has remained for the astute commercial minds of our progressive land to incorporate these qualities for their personal gain.

Aerotherapy as one department of physical therapy be-comes a cult when it is used to the exclusion of all other forms of healing. In New York a progressive quack established an institute equipped with special devices for pouring hot air over various portions of the body. He issued a beautiful brochure, illustrated with the likenesses of beautiful damsels in various states of negligee, smiling the smile of the satisfied, under his salubrious ministrations. In this document appeared incidentally the claim that hot air will cure anything from ague to zoster. The same claim has been made by the faith healers and the apostles of manipulation. But the first call it Christian Science and the second call it chiropractic.

Before the discovery of antibiotics, sulphur was the leading anti-bacterial drug. Every Queensland household in the 19th century would have a kilo or two of sulphur flowers for burning, and a few bottles of sulphurous acid for gargling.

Diphtheria was one of the greatest killers of the 19th century and the one and only line of defence against Diphtheria was sulphur. First the patient’s room was sealed tightly, and while the patient was still in it, ½ kilo of sulphur was burnt in the room. Next, the tonsils were brushed with sulphurous acid. Great care had to be taken to make certain that sulphurous acid and not sulphuric acid was used. There were many cases of patients’ throats being burnt out, because of this mix up. The patient then gargled a mixture of sulphur and water before going to bed with a few teaspoons of sulphur folded in their pyjamas. This cure was hard on the patients but spare a thought for the rest of the household and the neighbourhood for that matter. During diphtheria outbreaks the suburbs reeked of sulphur.

The great child killer of the 19th century was croup. The most dreaded sound a mother could hear was the sharp cough of the croup. Mothers were desperate for cures. One mother wrote to the newspapers with her cure. Her pen name was ‘Experienced” and with good reason. She had beaten off over twenty attacks of the croup with her cure. First the patient was given an enema made of mustard, salt and water. Next a mustard plaster was applied to the throat and chest and the patient was placed in a hot bath and covered to the neck with a blanket. After the bath the patient was wrapped in blankets, kept in bed, and after a few days, the patient would be right as rain.

Skin cancer ravaged our forebears just as much as it does today. One cure shows what a different world it was then. Spirit of salt applied once a day for a week would turn the cancer black and it would drop off within a few days. Ah, if it only could be so simple.

Most people who wear glasses don't maintain a regular schedule of getting eye exams. As long as they can see, they consider another eye exam a low priority. In fact, many only have an exam when their glasses break or wear out. By handling your eye care this way, you're not doing yourself any favors, and in the end you'll spend more money than you would have for annual exams.

Many spectacle wearers don't really pay too much attention to the frequency of their eye exams. Often they will only return to their eye doctor when their current pair of glasses is in need of repair or replacement. Contrary to belief, eye exams are very important for many reasons and it is critical to your eye health to have them examined once a year.

An optician or ophthalmologist is a health professional who is specially trained to look for and treat disorders of the eyes. Eye disorders such as glaucoma, macular degeneration, and other problems can destroy vision, cause blindness, and undermine a person's overall health. If you are having problems with your eyes and think you might need glasses in Raleigh, schedule a professional exam right away.

During an eye examination, the optician or ophthalmologist may be the first to notice certain signs or symptoms indicating the possible presence of a serious medical condition or disorder. Your eye specialist can then refer you to a medical doctor for diagnosis and treatment. If you have a medical condition such as diabetes or Bells Palsy, an optician or ophthalmologist can help monitor that condition's impact upon your eyes and ensure that they are minimally affected by that medical condition in the future.

Besides these important reasons to get an annual eye exam, it is also important to keep in mind that your prescription for lenses in Raleigh will not last forever. Your eyes are always in the process of changing, which is why it is important to get new lenses in Raleigh every year. Many people have such significant vision changes that their prescription changes from year to year.

Those who wear their same lenses in Raleigh many years after receiving their prescription without going in to see an eye care professional generally have trouble with many things such as blurred vision, trouble with focusing, eye and headaches, and various other difficulties. The reason for this is that when your prescription becomes outdated, your eyes have to struggle with proper focus, leading to the many physical consequences.

It is good practice to see an optician or ophthalmologist annually if you wear glasses. Continuing to wear glasses with an outdated prescription can cause your vision to worsen over time. When your eye care provider recommends getting new lenses or eyewear in Raleigh, do so as soon as possible.

By Tom Garimentis.

Can your Dreams Help you Succeed in Life?

Dreams are something that we all experience - even if we don't remember them. But are they really significant in the real world? Many people do believe that the ability to remember and interpret your dreams can help you solve problems in the waking world, confront and conquer repressed feelings and issues that you avoid or are afraid to deal with in the waking world, and can to put your best foot forward.

Throughout the years, dreams have played a significant role in the lives of many people. Military, political, and spiritual decisions have been made because of a dream. In some tribes, the crossover from childhood to manhood includes retreating into the mountains to commune with the spirit world through dreams. The dreams are believed to reveal to the young man what his mission in this life will be - the path that he should take for his journey through his life on earth.

Dreams are the brain's way of sorting all of the information taken in during your waking hours. Even though there are constant noises going on in the background, the brain only is alert to the most important events - everything else is stored away to be dealt with at a later time - and that occurs in our dreams.

Dreams offer you a chance to take a close look at yourself and see what you are really made of - what your true desires are. Dreams can also provide you with a means to face the things that you do not like about yourself and learn to alter these aspects of your personality into something that is positive and more productive in your waking life.

Some people base all of their personal, business, and social decisions on the meaning of their dreams. They learn to manipulate their dreams in order to focus on upcoming events that could change their lives.

Sigmund Freud, one of the greatest minds of the 19th century, revolutionized he study of dreams. He called dreams the "royal road to the unconscious". Freud's initial assessment of dreams was that all dreams were of a sexual nature. While he later gave up that theory, he clung to the theory that dreams are a wish fulfillment - a way for our conscious minds to become aware of the fears and desires buried in our unconscious minds.

Carl Jung studied under Freud. His views on dreams greatly contrasted those of Freud - to the point that they parted company and went their separate ways in their studies of dreams. Jung believed that dreams were more spiritual in nature. Like Freud, Jung believed that dreams were a "window to our unconscious" - a way of communicating and acquainting ourselves with the unconscious. Through our dreams, we can learn to understand our true feelings and find solutions to problems we are facing in our waking life. Jung believed that our dreams "serve to guide the waking self to achieve wholeness" - a unity of body, spirit, and mind.

Your dreams can help you reach a desired unity of body, spirit, and mind by revealing to you the path in life that will lead to happiness. Many times we may take a job because the pay is good, the benefits are good, and the "social status" we are searching for are a result of this job. But, if the job does not make us happy - if the job is not the career that we truly desire - are we denying ourselves the satisfaction that comes from feeling successful? Often, the answer is yes.

Being successful means different things to different people. But to most people, being successful means that we are achieving our goals in a personal, professional, and social aspect. Your dreams can actually help you to attain success. Dreams allow you to learn to understand your true desires and equipped with this understanding, you can begin reaching for your goals. Dreams can help you face aspects of your personality that you may not like - and once you have faced them, you have the power to allow the best you to shine through.

Throughout the history of man, even during Biblical times, dreams have played a significant role. God often appeared in the dreams of His people. Many people have been warned of medical problems in their dreams - and sometimes were able to make changes that helped them avoid the medical problem. Dreams are way to create a unity in mind, body, and spirit - thus creating a way for us to achieve success in our lives. Dreams are one of the free resources available to aid us in choosing the path in life that will fulfill all of our desires.

By Jim Eastman.

Medicine is the science and "art" of maintaining and/or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of patients. The term is derived from the Latin ars medicina meaning the art of healing.

The modern practice of medicine occurs at the many interfaces between the art of healing and various sciences. Medicine is directly connected to the health sciences and biomedicine. Broadly speaking, the term 'Medicine' today refers to the fields of clinical medicine, medical research and surgery, thereby covering the challenges of disease and injury.