7 Tips For Keeping Your Cool During An Emergency

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7 Tips For Keeping Your Cool During An Emergency | Roger StanmoreEmergencies can rouse panic and unrest in just about anyone, and moments of urgency can rattle even the most composed individual. Whether you face immediate life or health risks, emergencies are worsened by an improper reaction to acute injury or illness, possibly yielding long-term damage.

Each year, thousands fall victim to burns, seizures, heart attacks, and other types of emergencies. These life-changing tragedies and unthinkable moments require a level-head and a split-second response, especially when you feel yourself begin to disorient due to fear. In the case that it’s you or someone you love who requires immediate attention within and outside of the home, the most helpful piece of advice you need is to remain calm. However, there are some other pieces of advice you should take to heart during a moment of difficulty.

Take a Beat

You may not want to react too quickly. In fact, sometimes another person’s life may depend on you offering the proper response, not simply a rash one. Immediately ask yourself what’s the most efficient way to alleviate risk and stress during a time of crisis.

Take a Breath

Failing to breathe properly can interrupt the movement from oxygen to the brain, resulting in a loss of focus. Breathing deeply can quiet the urge to hyperventilate or pass out. Keep calm and make.

Keep Your Mind on Task

It’s critical that your mind remains with those who are in need. If you see that one person may be injured and they’re fine, survey your area to be sure that no else has been hurt.

Devise A Plan of Action Today

Ahead of any incident, always be prepared in case an emergency arises. Don’t wait for a tragedy to strike, create evacuation plans, prepare a first aid kit, learn CRP, and know the best exit routes in case there’s a fire.

Voice of Reason

Keeping calm is vital, but managing to keep others calm and offering them positive guidance demonstrates bravery. It’s incredibly courageous to overcome your fear to boost the morale of everyone involved in the situation. Mindfulness can improve through practice.

Reduce Stress

Squeezing and releasing all of the muscles in your body isometrically in three successions will reduce stress and call you.

Communication

Clear communication is essential, offering everyone involved a clear picture of what’s at stake. Taking the time to speak evenly to an injury party can reduce stress, and lead to a quick resolution.

Remember to learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) basics, as well as all-important first aid basics, so that you’re prepared for ahead of a life or death situations. Additionally, locate all fire extinguishers, as well as fire exits. Above all else, remember to call 911.

5 Tips for an Easier, More Affordable ER Visit

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5 Tips for an Easier, More Affordable ER Visit | Roger Stanmore MD, JDEmergency rooms (also known as an accident & emergency departments or the ER) are medical treatment facilities that specialize in emergency medicine. At these facilities, patients can access care without an appointment, and by way of an ambulance, or through their own means. They’re equipped and staffed to provide prompt treatment of those suffering from illnesses or trauma, requiring immediate medical care.

Likely, if you’re visiting the emergency room, you’re dealing with a severe medical issue. Ahead of the visit, you need to assure that you’ll be able to answer all questions about your health insurance and medical history. There are also some other things you should contemplate, with regards to tests, procedures, affordability, and access. Below, find five tips to better your ER visit:

  1. Consider the fact that you may not need to visit the ER. While you may feel that you have an emergency on your hands, you’ll likely endure a long wait and a spend a lot of money to simply learn that an urgent care facility could meet your needs at a reduced cost for less than half the time. The ER is best meant to service those with serious head injuries, seizures, stroke heart attack, and other severe pain –while urgent care units are equipped to treat everything from broken bones, to stitches, to burns.
  2. Educate yourself about your health so that you can share that you can quickly share that information with the hospital. No matter who you see for your medical health needs, be sure that you give the medical professional enough information, so they can properly aid you. Have medical history on hand when you arrive at the ER. Having your health history handy means having a list of your previous hospital stays, the past or chronic illnesses/diseases, allergies, medications/supplements, health problems in your family, and vaccines you’ve received. Consider storing medical records on an app –meaning that it can be easily accessed.
  3. Learn your ER rights, and make sure no one is violating those rights. Insurance companies are required to cover your care if you visit the ER with an emergency medical condition, according to the Affordable Care Act. There’s no need for approval ahead of your visit if your symptoms are severe enough that you believe you may be in danger.
  4. Rather than racking up a substantial bill at the ER, learn if your doctor can run those tests for you. Tests conducted in a hospital will cost a great deal more than they will at other places. If it’s at all possible to safely put off scans and tests, then you should wait until you visit your doctor’s office, where they will be less costly.
  5. Read your ER bills. Upon receiving your ER bill, immediately scan it to make sure that you were charged in-network costs. It’s possible that you could have been visited by a specialist, technician, or another professional outside of your network during your stay. Nonetheless, most plans will cover all ER fees during the cases of a real emergency. However, providers will bill you directly for differences between what your plan pays and what they charge. Either way, you may want to follow up with your insurance company.

    Remember to know your rights, review your bills and insurance reports, and postpone non-essential tests.

Urgent Care Pioneer Continues to Spread Access, Affordability

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roger_stanmore_md_jdMedExpress, an urgent care pioneer, continues to spread affordability throughout the nation, employing more than 4,500 customer service workers and health care professionals in 177 centers, operating in 15 states.

Approximately 15 years ago, in 2001, MedExpress established its first urgent care facility in Morgantown, W.Va. MedExpress envisioned a cohort of emergency room physicians who offered expedited health care and customer service to patients in a way that was affordable and convenient. Fifteen years later, MedExpress has opened its latest center in its 15th state, with its latest facility open in Eden Prairie and Plymouth, Minnesota.

Chief Medical Officer Thomas Pangburn spoke to the Tribune-Review, where he commented, “From our first center to today, we have always needed talented, dedicated health care and customer service professionals to make MedExpress possible, especially when ‘urgent care’ wasn’t a common term in the healthcare industry. Ensuring we had the teams in place to deliver on our commitment to patient-centric care was our focus then and continues to be today.”

The evolution of the healthcare industry is pronounced, and the medical professions affixed to that industry have made the choice to evolve with it. There are numerous choices that become available to those who requiring assistance for their injuries and illnesses. These neighborhood health partners are prepared to educate patients on their many options. Moreover, they’re obliged to help “patients receive the most appropriate level of care at the right place and the right time.” For patients who find the idea of searching for a primary care provider daunting and don’t want to spend a large sum of money on  an emergency room visit, urgent care medicine is a happy medium. This particular model of health care meets short term goals and services the overall shift to high-deductible plans while providing affordable rates.

High-quality, convenient health service provided by experienced medical teams is ideal, particularly for busy individuals working traditional 9-to-5s. MedExpress and other urgent care centers demonstrate their capacity for success by allowing patients providing service during weekend and evening hours, meeting time-sensitive and unscheduled needs.
MedExpress, like most urgent care facilities, offer transparency, and they accept most major insurances. They’re equipped to handle most non-life-threatening injuries and illness and a fraction of the cost. Today, there are tens of thousands of walk-in clinics in the U.S., focusing on the delivery of ambulatory care in a dedicated facility that differs from a traditional emergency room. A New York Time’s article published 2014 indicated that the urgent care industry is worth approximately $14. Billion, as of 2014.

“Smart Thread”: Revolutionizing Medical Diagnostics With 3-D Tissue Embedding

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Engineers at Tufts University have come up with a new “smart thread” diagnostic platform that could revolutionize the way we diagnose medical issues. This could be the beginning of a new generation of smart wearable devices and implantable medical diagnostics.

The new microfluidic threads created by the team can be sutured through many layers of tissue in order to sample the body’s fluid. After the microfluidic threads collect tiny samples of tissue fluid, the samples are conveyed to sensing threads. These sensing threads measure a number of properties such as pH and glucose, and the data is sent to a flexible wireless transmitter that can be placed on top of the skin.This data is sent via electrically conductive threads.

Microfluidics is a fairly new practice. This technology applies ideas from a number of disciplines including chemistry, biochemistry, physics, engineering, biotechnology, and nanotechnology. Using microfluidics, tiny amounts of fluid can be controlled using microchannels.

The team behind the study was able to show how the smart thread can collect and transmit medical data in live rats. The data, which included pH and glucose levels, stress, strain, tissue pressure, and temperature, was transmitted to a computer and a cell phone.

Having the ability to measure these properties in real time in three dimensions in live tissue could be useful in a number of medical applications. This technology could help to monitor wound healing, emerging infections, and any imbalances in the body’s chemistry.

It is extremely exciting that this 3-D platform is able to conform to the structure of complex tissues, such as those found in wounds, organs, and orthopedic implants. The way the thread-based diagnostic device can be sutured in a tissue or organ environment so intimately in three dimensions adds something new to the world of diagnostics. This feature has never been available with any other flexible diagnostic platforms.

One thing that isn’t new, however, is the concept of smart devices being capable of medical monitoring. For example, smart insulin patches are being developed that can sense high blood sugar, and can thus discharge the right amount of insulin. There are also smart wound dressings that can sense bacterial infections.

Up until now, the structure of implantable devices has been two dimensional. This is useful but it can only be used on flat tissue such as skin. There is another drawback to the 2-D devices. The materials in the substrates require specialized processing and are therefore expensive.

Smart thread is the solution to many of these inconveniences. Smart thread is made of thin, inexpensive, flexible material that can easily form into complex shapes. The thread also possesses natural wicking properties. This could be instrumental in conveying analytes, substances that help with chemical analysis of the tissue.
According to research, there is still more work to be done. One task that lies ahead is assessing the smart thread’s long-term biocompatibility. However, the results acquired so far show that treatments may be optimized to suit individual patients. This technology has the potential to make a big difference in the field of medical diagnostics.

Should Urgent Care Centers Embrace Telemedicine?

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1024px-Telemedicine_ConsultWhile urgent care providers view telemedicine as a threatening competitor, which could siphon patients from their customer base, the urgent care institution Doctors Care doesn’t feel that way. Embracing the ever-popular “If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy, Doctors Care has chosen to increase its use of telemedicine to offer its patients more options when they’re receiving care.

With 55 facilities across Tennessee and South Carolina, Doctors Care is expanding what it offers its client base, beginning with an investment in technology. The company uses communication systems already in place and existing information in order to offer patients supplemental services. Doctors Care doesn’t worry that telemedicine may divert patients from their brick-and-mortar facilities.

Looking at the model from the perspective of a consumer, officials offering non-medical support services saw the value of providing care to patients in a way that speaks to current trends and the future. Since 2013, Doctors Care has been examining telemedicine and gauging how these services would be incorporated into standing services. The company acknowledged that wait time at some of its urgent care sites could be three hours or more while other location had absolutely no wait time.

Equipping facilities with telemedicine capabilities makes it possible for individuals visiting crowded sites to be seen remotely or immediately, in order to ease numbers in these busier waiting rooms, acting as a load balancing approach. Doctors Care operators found that patients frequently opted to be examined remotely, with medical assistants or nurses administering these examinations. Furthermore, the technology makes so that an all-in-one camera supports dermatological examinations of the nose, ear, throat, eye, or skin, as well as an otoscope. Physicians are also equipped with Bluetooth-enabled stethoscopes, and patients are able to receive X-ray procedures and labs at presentation sites.

Doctors Care builds on existing telephone and network infrastructure to support their telemedicine initiative. This has helped the company to achieve some of its key goals, which are increasing patient satisfaction and reducing patient wait time. By doing this experiment, operators found that many patients prefer telemedicine, regardless of wait time at facilities. This is perfect for conditions that don’t require on-site examination, particularly those for upper respiratory illnesses, fever, ear infection, sore throat, sinusitis, eye infection, life infection, and mild skin conditions. The telemedicine features also include direct-to-consumer consultations. The company spent just $50,000 to expand telemedicine capabilities.

Urgent care is a viable alternative to the emergency room, and provider should be treating conditions or injuries just short of ER needs. Telemedicine is important for low-touch, non-emergency care, and it could enable facilities to offer more care in more venues, in the way of occupational health, specialists, or help operators. Telemedicine being marketed directly to consumers is somewhat new, nonetheless, it treats a subset of patients who have conditions suited for direct-to-consumer medicine.

Some will continue to believe that telemedicine poses a challenge while other urgent care centers will embrace telemedicine wholly.

Urgent Care or the Emergency Room, Which One Should You Visit?

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16288-a-female-doctor-examining-a-patient-pvStrangely enough, there are still large populations of people within the U.S. who are totally unaware of the presence of urgent care facilities. Not only that, but many individuals who are aware of urgent care facilities are totally oblivious to the differences between urgent care and the emergency room.

It’s not unusual to watch someone rush off to the emergency room after discovering a new episode of illness or after one has injured oneself. However, depending on the nature of the emergency, there are different places that individual should visit. For a long time, the emergency room was the only option the public in case of an emergency or when a primary care physician was unavailable. However, there’s a new option available to the public now, urgent care.

While primary care physicians and emergency departments are foundations for the healthcare system, urgent care center have unveiled their value by offering convenient, time-efficient and inexpensive service during evening hours and at night. Urgent care facilities are able to see and assist patients with non-life threatening conditions who require care. Emergency rooms were designed to treat critical conditions such as broken bones, deep gashes or similar emergencies. Urgent care facilities were designed to treat vital, but non-threatening health issues.

Emergency rooms will always remain essential, but being seen there will always be an obstacle because the emergency room is obliged to see everyone. By law, emergency rooms are tasked to care for everyone, 24-hours-a-day and seven days a week. You don’t have to have an emergency to be seen there, and there’s a mandate that requires them to evaluate all patients and ensure that they’re safe enough to go home. 

Emergency waiting rooms become crowded because people want access to that acute-care and the numerous services. The emergency room is definitely the place to go if you require a cardiologist or a neurosurgeon, but urgent care center are more appropriate when you seeking physicians and nurse practitioners who can care for less serious issues.

Because urgent care facilities don’t offer quite as many services as the emergency room, it’s more cost-effective. The effective, low-cost facilities accept most forms of major insurance and they offer affordable pricing to those without insurance. Urgent care facilities are equipped to care for an earache, sore throats, sinus infection pink eye, fever, stomach flu, colds and upper respiratory infections. Also, they’re able to offer treatment for broken and sprains, stitches, and labs, x-rays, IVs, and EKGs. However, you should seek out emergency care if one has complex health issues related to high blood pressure, diabetes and kidney issues, or a stroke or chest pains, patient’s are asked to visit their local emergency room.

If you don’t know if you should venture to the emergency room or the urgency room, consider your level of pain or discomfort, as well consider the services you may require. Also, if you choose to visit an urgent care facility, know that you don’t need to make an appointment, and you will likely be in and out within an hour. Also, physicians at urgent care facilities are able to prescribe medicine.