Latest / Talking FACS / Navigating Medical Provider Options

Transcript

Navigating Medical Provider Options · Talking FACS

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  Welcome to Talking FACS, what you need to know about family,
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  food, finance, and fitness.
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  This nationally recognized, award-winning podcast is hosted by the University
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  of Kentucky Family and Consumer Sciences Extension Program.
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  Our educators share research knowledge with individuals, families,
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  and communities to improve quality of life.
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  Finding medical care these days might be as easy as picking up your smartphone
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  and talking to your doctor through video chat.
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  Or you might have to actually go in and have a visit if you need to have vitals done.
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  Or if it's an emergent need, then you might need to actually go to an urgent
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  clinic or an emergency care center.
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  You are listening to Talking FACS and we provide resources to help your family,
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  your community, and our state be the absolute best that it can be.
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  I am your host, Mindy McCulley, Extension Specialist for Instructional Support
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  with Family and Consumer Sciences Extension.
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  My guest today is Katherine Jury, Extension Specialist for Family Health.
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  Deciding who and when to visit when you need medical care is our topic today. Welcome, Katherine.
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  Mindy, thanks for having me. I think this is a great topic because we have so
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  many times when we might need really quick care or, you know, just a regular visit.
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  So having, you know, a regular medical care provider is great.
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  So how do we choose who to visit with so many options available today?
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  The landscape of medical providers has changed rapidly over the past several years,
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  both from company name changes and insurance shifts to pop-up clinics and urgent care centers.
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  It seems like the types of care available may have increased,
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  but sometimes extra choices just make it confusing.
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  So that's what we want to talk about today. How do you choose which place to
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  go when you have some type of medical need?
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  So, what are some of the benefits of having a primary care provider? I know I love mine.
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  Yes. And the fact that you love your primary care provider, a physician or nurse practitioner,
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  that you see on a regular basis, the fact that you know them and you love them
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  in and of itself is a benefit.
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  Having a primary care provider, a doctor that you can schedule both well exams,
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  well visits and receive care from when you're ill or have an injury is important
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  because you're able to establish that rapport.
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  You're able to establish that kind of relationship where you know them and you trust them.
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  They know you and they know that your medical history and your medical record.
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  So that's important because so many of our medical needs are things that can
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  change over time or develop over time.
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  And your medical provider, if they don't know you or they don't have a record
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  of what your health has been like over your lifetime,
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  it can be difficult for them to determine exactly what's going on or what's wrong at any given time.
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  So that background, that history, that established care over time really is
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  for the patient's benefit.
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  I could not agree more because my doctor is someone I've seen for more than
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  20 years. We go to church together.
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  We see each other in the grocery store. And sometimes my husband says he knows
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  a little bit too much about our life, but, you know, he does know everything that we do.
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  And so when I need him emergently, usually I get seen pretty quickly.
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  And that's not always the case if you don't have a primary care provider. Absolutely.
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  Your primary care provider, while they definitely have to have office hours,
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  times that they are available and times that they are not available,
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  they tend to be very willing to
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  work with their established patients to provide care in a timely manner.
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  So they're also able to answer those more one-off questions when a situation
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  isn't a dire emergency, where you can ask, do I need to be seen?
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  You can call and speak to someone in their office to determine,
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  do I need to be seen? Is this worth a visit?
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  And have those types of conversations. There are lots and lots of urgent care
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  clinics or urgent care centers that are popping up, almost it seems,
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  in every parking lot in the community.
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  So how do we decide if that is a place that we might need to go?
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  So I would triage your situation.
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  If you have an illness or an injury that is not emergent, meaning you can breathe
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  normally and you're not losing large amounts of blood,
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  and your primary care physician's office is open, I would call them first.
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  Every time, all the time. I would encourage folks to only utilize those urgent
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  care centers if their primary care physician is not available.
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  Either they're closed or not available, not able to see you in the time frame that you need.
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  Also, while having an urgent care center can be a huge benefit in that you are
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  able to receive care, I would do some pre-investigation to know what your insurance
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  coverage is for an urgent care center.
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  They vary widely, and they may bill differently for an office visit than some
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  of those other services than they may be able to provide.
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  So an urgent care center can definitely be a benefit if you have an urgent need,
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  but your medical need is not a true emergency.
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  As in you can breathe normally, you're not losing large amounts of blood,
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  you don't have any bones sticking out places they don't belong, that kind of thing.
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  They can also, sometimes urgent care centers can offer lab services or imaging
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  services that can be very convenient.
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  But again, I would encourage a conversation about insurance coverage and billing
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  because that can look very different than insurance.
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  Maybe your primary care office, or a hospital network.
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  So, I would just encourage individuals to do a little investigative work ahead
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  of time to know how expensive those options may be, even though they may be
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  physically available in their community.
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  And then reserve those emergency rooms, emergency department visits for those
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  true emergencies. So, anything that's related to a person's breathing.
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  So if a person is not breathing, if they are turning blue, if they are unconscious,
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  those are all times that we need to go to utilize those emergency services.
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  If you suspect a person has had or is having a seizure,
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  is having a serious allergic reaction, or you're concerned about them not being
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  able to breathe or losing the ability to breathe, anytime that we see a bone
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  sticking out where it doesn't belong.
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  Or have blood. We can't stop bleeding if bleeding is too profuse to stop.
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  Or if we suspect poisoning.
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  If we suspect a person has taken too much of a medication or has ingested something
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  that they should not have.
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  Those are true emergencies, and those are situations where we want to utilize
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  those emergency services. We talked at the beginning of the show about picking up your smartphone.
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  So, let's talk just a little bit about telemedicine or telehealth.
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  When do we want to utilize those services? Absolutely. So telemedicine or telehealth
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  is a wonderful advancement in medical technology.
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  You get to visit with a provider face-to-face just through an app or a website.
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  Telemedicine can be a wonderful tool to utilize for a routine visit.
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  Things like you just need a visit to refill certain types of medication.
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  Additionally, issues such as rashes or minor cuts or burns.
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  If you suspect you have a cold that's just, you know, drug on for a long time,
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  a mild allergic reaction, or those kind of typical stomach bug issues,
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  vomiting, diarrhea, fever.
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  However, something that I would caution is that using telemedicine,
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  one downside is that you can't be tested on the spot for things like the flu or strep throat.
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  And so if you suspect that you may have something like that,
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  then you might not want to resort to telemedicine just because you may have
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  to go in person to receive those types of diagnostic services after all.
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  Yes, almost any time you have a fever, you almost want to go into the office.
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  And just from a safety standpoint, I recommend that you use your primary care
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  physician's services through telemedicine and not just a random website or a
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  random app because you don't know where that care is coming from. Absolutely.
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  There are certainly lots of telemedicine-specific services out there.
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  However, I would encourage you to first look for if your primary care provider
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  offers telemedicine or through your health care insurance company.
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  Some health insurance offers specific telemedicine services,
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  typically much more financially feasible than independent companies as well.
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  So things that I would look into first before you do that Google search, certainly.
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  Most definitely. Katherine, thank you so much for your time today.
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  I think this has certainly been a beneficial event.
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  Show that will provide lots of resources for our listeners.
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  Thank you for having me. And if you need additional information,
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  you can always find the health bulletin with related information in the show notes.
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  If you are just tuning in, you're listening to Talking FACS,
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  and we're available on all major podcast providers.
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  Music.