When to Call 911
How do we know when to call 911. Many people feel reluctant to make a call to bring help. Below is a list of symptoms for calling 911: Chest pain, …
Category: Articles
Safe Medication Use
Remember the 3 R’s of safe medication use: All prescriptions and nonprescription medication have risks. Respect the power of your medication and the vale of medicines properly used. Take responsibility …
Why question a procedure?
Why ask questions before a diagnostic procedure? To be an informed patient To understand what is happening to you To be in control of what is going on To be …
Medication questions to ask
Questions to ask your doctor before taking any prescription medication, herbal or other over-the-counter, r supplemental medications: Why do I need this medication? What is the name of the medication? How …
How Your Health Team Works For You
While we all like to think that our doctor is the biggest and the best, we need to recognize that s/he is merely one member of your health care team. …
Your Patient Bill Of Rights
Historically, each health care facility in the United States has subscribed to a written Patient Bill of Rights that was created by the American Hospital Association in 1995. That document …
End Of Life Conversations
When is The Right Time to Have Such a Conversation? There is never a right time to discuss end of life issues. But the issues can quickly become a fact …
Vaccination Guide For Parents
Below is a suggested list of vaccinations for children. Be sure to follow the dates and guidelines directed by your healthcare provider. Many times, these vaccines are combined to minimize …
How Your Hospital Bills Get Paid
Your hospital bill: Hospital bills and insurance coverage are often confusing. Most hospitals do not send an itemized bill when they bill you for the health care you have received. …
The Basics Of Individual Health Insurance
Historically, most full-time American workers got great health insurance through an employer-based health plan. Very often, this coverage was a benefit that they did not have to contribute to. Those …
When Is It Time To Find A New Doctor
Upon graduation from medical school each new doctor takes the Hippocratic oath in which s/he pledges to do ‘no harm’. These young doctors subsequently spend the rest of their career …
Planning For Discharge
What is Discharge Planning? Discharge planning involves planning for the care you will need after you are discharged from a health-care facility. The planning begins on the day that you …
How To Select A Doctor
There are many doctors out there giving all sorts of care. Some are great doctors but lousy human beings. Some are great human beings, but are lousy clinicians. Some have …
What To Expect From Your Nurse
DEFINITION OF NURSING: The American Nurses’ Association (ANA) traditionally defined nursing as the “diagnosis and treatment of human responses to actual or potential health problems.” In 2004 they expanded that …
How Do You Know If You Have An Infection?
SIGNS & SYMPTOMS OF A LOCALIZED INFECTION: The inflammatory response is the normal response of the healthy body when an injury has occurred. This injury can be the result of trauma …
Reducing Your Risk Of Health Care Acquired Infections
What are Health Care Acquired Infections?Infections that patients get while in the health care setting are referred to as Hospital-Acquired, Health-Care Acquired or nosocomial infections (HAI’s). This means that the …
Common Painkillers Increase Risk For Heart Attack & Stroke
Healthy adults who reach for common painkillers to ease the twinges of everyday aches and pains could be setting themselves up for a heart attack or stroke, according to recent …
Safe Medication Practices
Usually if we get sick, the medicine we take helps us stay healthy when we follow the dosage instructions. But sometimes medication errors do happen and people can get hurt …
Adult Immunizations
THE CDC ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON IMMUNIZAtion Practices routine immunization recommendations for adults are below. Tetanus, Diphtheria & Pertussis Vaccine (Td/ Tdap): protects against three bacterial diseases. Tetanus bacteria poisons can cause …
When You’re Taking Medications
MEDICATIONS ARE SOMETIMES NECESSARY: No one likes to take medications. They may be difficult to swallow. They may be inconvenient. They may be unaffordable. They may cause side effects…some minor, …
What You Need to Know About the Flu Vaccine
Why get vaccinated? Influenza (flu) is a contagious disease. It is caused by the influenza virus, which can be spread by coughing, sneezing, or through nasal secretions. Anyone can get influenza, …
Antibiotics Are Not Always the Answer
No one wants to be sick. When people feel sick, they want to get better fast. Many people complain that they went to their doctor when they were feeling really …
The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998
This federal act requires that all group health plans or individual insurance contracts that provide medical and surgical benefits must follow the federal guidelines below when one of their subscribers …
The Right Preventative Care
Regardless of your age, there are appropriate and necessary preventative services that each individual should receive in order to stay healthy. You need to work with your personal physician to …
Patient Self Determination Act
The Patient Self-Determination Act became law is the U.S. in 1990. and was implemented in all health care institutions. As a result of this Act, all patients were guaranteed to …
Signing A Treatment Consent Form
Read the Fine Print: Before you have any invasive diagnostic or treatment procedure in the hospital, you will be asked to sign a treatment consent form. Legally, treatment consent forms …
Rights Of The Hospitalized Mentally Ill Patient
The mentally ill patient has many rights provided to them by our legal system: They have the right to treated with dignity and respect. They have the right to communicate …
THE PATIENT CARE PARTNERSHIP by the American Hospital Association
WHAT IS THE PATIENT CARE PARTNERSHIP? The Patient Care Partnership is a document created by the American Hospital Association in 2003 that helps you as a patient understand what your …
How Your Confidentiality Is Maintained
HIPAA: Every health care consumer is guaranteed privacy and confidentiality by HIPAA, the Health Information Portability & Accountability Act of 1996. This Act protects your personal information by holding EVERYONE …
How To Access Your Medical Records
It is your absolute right to have all of your medical information in your hands, including your medical history, diagnostic lab & test results, current treatments, and any operative notes. …
The Rights of Children & Adolescents
Although the age of majority in the health care setting is eighteen (18) years, children and adolescents are guaranteed certain rights in the health care setting even though they are …
Treating Head Lice
The start of a new school year can be an exciting time for children, but it is also the time when problems with head lice begin. According to the CDC, …
Your Child’s Healthcare at School
Chronic illnesses, such as ongoing or reoccurring conditions like asthma, allergies, diabetes or epilepsy, affect at least 10-15 percent of American children. If your school-age child has a chronic illness, …
When Bottle Feeding Your Infant is Best
Breastfeeding is the ideal way to feed a newborn, but many women either choose not to do so for personal reasons or must bottle-feed because of health-related issues such as …
Taking Your Child’s Temperature
The human body is designed to keep its temperature within a normal range. Sweating is one of your body’s many safety features. Perspiration helps to keep your temperature within normal …
Packing Nutritious School Lunches
Children see one food ad for every 5 minutes of cartoons they watch on Saturday mornings. Since few of these ads are for fruits and vegetables and children watch about …
Newborn’s & Mother’s Health Protection Act
Group health plans and health insurance issuers generally may not, under federal law, restrict benefits for any hospital length of stay in connection with childbirth for the mother or newborn …
My Child Has Pink Eye
Pink eye, or conjunctivitis, is a common problem, especially in school children. It happens when the conjunctiva – a thin, clear covering over the white part of the eye that …
Know the Signs of Child Abuse
Identifying and reporting child abuse is perhaps one of the most difficult things a nurse has to do. All states have statutes that identify mandatory reporters of child abuse, and …
Girls & Puberty
Puberty signals a time for growth and change in your body – from girl to young woman. It also prepares your body for having babies. Not all girls experience puberty …
An Autistic Child Doesn’t Mean Parents Will Divorce
Study debunks conventional wisdom about couples split by condition-related stress WEDNESDAY, May 19 (HealthDay News) — It’s been conventional thinking in the autism community for years: If you’re the parents …
Potty Training Your Toddler
If your child is between 2 and 3 years old, it may be time to start teaching him or her how to use the toilet. Before you start this important …
What You Need To Know About Your Surgical Incision
Suture or Staple Removal: So you’ve had surgery and you’re being sent home to heal. Perhaps the staples and/or sutures that were used to close your incision were removed before …
So You’re Having Abdominal Surgery
Your friends at Patient Action are so sorry that you need to have abdominal surgery. This information will help you prepare for your operation…. both physically and mentally. It is …
So You’re Having Shoulder Surgery
Your friends at Patient Action are so sorry that you require shoulder surgery. We know first hand that it will be no picnic, but hard work and commitment to your …
Preparing For Surgery
The stress of needing surgery: Being told you need surgery is a very stressful experience. Patients have lots of fears, including great anxiety related to the ultimate diagnosis. Do I …
So You’re Having Kidney Stone Surgery
Your friends at Patient Action are so sorry that you have been suffering with kidney stones (renal calculi) and that you now require a surgical procedure to remove them. We …
Care After a Hip Replacement
Hip replacement, or arthroplasty, is a surgical procedure during which the diseased parts of the hip joint are removed and replaced with new, artificial parts. These artificial parts are called …
Osteoporosis
What is Osteoporosis? Osteoporosis is a disease that weakens bones. As this disease progresses, the bones may become so brittle they break even without an injury. These broken bones, or …
The Women’s Health and Cancer Rights Act of 1998
This federal act requires that all group health plans or individual insurance contracts that provide medical and surgical benefits must follow the federal guidelines below when one of their subscribers …