Podcast #11

Welcome to the edition number 11 of Your Health, offering health information and suggestions to keep you and your loved ones healthy. I'm Neal Linkon, reminding you that we sure do enjoy hearing from you, and that your input helps decide what will be in these programs. So if you have questions, comments, ways we can help or ideas for future editions, please let us know at internet@aurora.org.

 A new place to get health care help is popping up around the country, especially in the Midwest. We call them Aurora QuickCare. In Minnesota they are called MinuteClinics. But the concept is the same. They are faster and less expensive than urgent care or the ER, and you don't have to worry about getting an appointment with your doctor at the last minute. I spoke with Janet Teske, who runs the QuickCare program for Aurora, to learn more about this new health care model.

<interview transcript not available>

We keep adding QuickCare sites, including a bunch of them at Wal-Mart Supercenters. To learn more or to find a site near you, go to www.Aurora.org/QuickCare. 

Not everybody has chronic illness, requires surgery or has a bad accident. But just about everybody, at some point in their lives, will get sick or need medication. And we sure get lots of questions about that aspect of medical care.

In a previous edition of this program we talked about medication safety and what you can do to make sure your meds work for you, and do it safely. So in this edition, let's focus on tips to make working with your pharmacist a little easier.

Wherever you go for your medications, it's a good idea to always go to the same one. Only then can the pharmacist help you when you are taking more than one medication. He or she will know right away whether there's a possible conflict between medications, even if they were prescribed by different doctors.

Many times you'll need to get more of your medications. When you are close to running out, check your medication bottle. If it says you have 1 or more refills left, you don't need to contact your doctor. He or she has already approved the additional medication, so all you need to do is contact the pharmacy. If you use an Aurora Pharmacy, you can call the number on the bottle and use our automated system to order your refill. You'll just need the information on the bottle itself.  If you'd rather use the web, just go to www.AuroraPharmacy.org and look for the graphic near the top of the page that says “refill your prescription online.”  You'll need to sign in or register for the service.

If you need more medication and your bottle doesn't say you have any refills left, your doctor will need to authorize that. You can do that in several different ways. You can call your doctor's office, or you can call your pharmacy, and they can call your doctor. Or, if you use My Aurora, you can request the renewal right online. Just to go www.Aurora.org/MyAurora and log in. Then under My Tools, look for the link to Prescription Renew.

The most important thing worth repeating from our earlier edition on medication safety is how important it is that you have a list of what you are taking, and that includes non-prescription medications, supplements, vitamins and the like. You can track those things in My Aurora, or you can keep a copy of your own. Always share that list with your doctor when you visit.

Our philosophy of care is called Care management.  In each edition of Your Health, we'll look at a Care Management initiative to give you a better idea of what this is all about. Most importantly, these segments will have meaningful and useful information to help you and your loved ones.

At the very core of Care Management is preventive medicine.  It's better for you, and it saves a lot of money, if we prevent illness and injury. The right immunization, for example, takes less time, causes you less discomfort, and costs a whole lot less than treating what the immunization is designed to prevent.

Aurora follows the lead of the U. S. Preventive Service Task Force, which is a broad national group that examines the latest science and medicine and makes recommendations for what you and your loved ones should do to prevent illness and injury.

We list on our Web site the details, broken down by age and gender, because they do vary quite a bit. We also offer a fun little preventive health assessment that you can take to get a better idea of what you might be doing to improve your health.

To access the preventive health guidelines or to take the preventive health assessment, go to www.Aurora.org/prevention. And to learn more about our Care Management initiatives and what they might mean for you or your loved ones, please go to www.Aurora.org/cm.

Thanks for listening to this edition of Your Health. I'm Neal Linkon, Aurora's manager of Web communications. If you have any comments, questions or suggestions about these programs, or anything else related to navigating the world of health, please let us know by sending an email to internet@aurora.org. And thanks for listening.