News
Have you seen your primary care provider (PCP) this year for a wellness visit? If not, go ahead and schedule it now. If your insurance provides a free annual wellness or preventive care visit and you haven’t used this benefit in 2020, don’t miss out on this important opportunity.
Why Is Preventive Care Important?
You might think it’s OK to skip out on your appointment with your PCP if you feel well and don’t have any pressing medical needs, but that’s not how a wellness visit works. This checkup helps your PCP get an overall picture of your health and alert you of any potential problems. Your PCP is your partner in good health—when you’re sick and when you’re well.
Even if you are healthy, routine physical exams allow your PCP to:
- Administer vaccinations, including scheduled vaccines and annual vaccines like the flu shot
- Discuss your personal and family medical history, which allows the PCP to personalize recommendations for health screenings, including cardiac or lung cancer screenings, to your needs
- Monitor your vital signs to identify negative trends that may be reversible
- Perform bloodwork that monitors for issues like diabetes, elevated cholesterol levels or vitamin deficiencies
- Perform a general physical exam that involves examining the eyes, nose and mouth, listening to the heart and lungs, evaluating blood pressure and more
- Prescribe medications for chronic conditions
- Provide in-office screenings for conditions such as high blood pressure
- Update your medical records
How Often Should You Visit Your PCP?
While annual checkups aren’t specifically recommended for all age groups (except for children), they are strongly suggested by many PCPs and encouraged by some health insurance companies or if you have health risks or issues that need to be addressed more frequently. However, there is a regular appointment schedule for young children, and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force outlines a timetable for specific screenings and exams for men and women’s health.
Children (Birth–21): For the first two months of your child’s life, he or she should visit the PCP once a month, then again at ages 4 months and 6 months. From 6 months to 2 years, the child should see the PCP every three months. When your child turns 2 years old, the visits slow to once every six months, and then they become annual visits beginning at age 3.
Ages 21–40: While annual preventive checkups with your PCP aren’t necessary if you’re in good health, they’re recommended if you have health issues, such as high blood pressure or diabetes, that need to be monitored. Your blood pressure should be checked at least every other year, and a lipid panel to screen for cholesterol issues should be performed at least every five years. During this time, sexually active women will need a Pap test every three years, and Pap and HPV tests every five years from 30–65.
Ages 30–40: If you have not scheduled regular annual PCP visits in the past, now is the time to start. During these yearly visits, you can discuss preventive care for conditions such as obesity, hypertension and diabetes. Beginning at 40, women should begin regular breast cancer screenings, and their PCP can coordinate that care. All the preventive tests performed during your 20s should continue.
Age 50+: Annual doctor’s visits are increasingly important. In addition to the tests you’ve had during your 20s through your 40s, you should begin getting colonoscopies at least once every 10 years to screen for colorectal cancer. Men should also discuss prostate cancer screenings with their PCP. Other screenings, such as those for lung cancer or abdominal aortic aneurysm, are recommended based on your personal health risk.
Patients With Medicare Part B: After 12 months of Medicare Part B, you’re eligible for a free annual Wellness visit. While this isn’t a full checkup, it’s an opportunity for you to speak one on one with a PCP, discuss your health risks and develop a plan to help prevent disability and disease. At this time, you discuss screenings you need and work with the PCP to develop a schedule for those.
Regular visits with a PCP are a critical component of your health. To find a PCP for you or a family member, visit care.mrhc.org/primary-care or call (662) 664-5181.
Each year, about 20% of Americans get the flu, and this highly contagious respiratory infection typically leads to 225,000 hospitalizations and kills about 20,000 people. While it’s important to get a flu shot even in “normal” times, the COVID-19 global pandemic places a new importance on infection prevention—particularly as flu season overlaps with a surge of COVID-19 cases in Mississippi.
There currently is no vaccine that prevents COVID-19. While the flu shot doesn’t offer COVID-19 protection, it does reduce your risk of getting the flu. You can have the flu and COVID-19 at the same time, and recent research from England suggests that people who contracted both were more than twice as likely to die from the infections as those with COVID-19 alone.
Read more: Get the latest COVID-19 updates from Magnolia Regional Health Center.
Who Needs a Flu Shot?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevent recommends that everyone ages 6 months and older, with very few exceptions, get a flu shot each year. The flu shot is especially crucial for people at high risk for flu complications, such as those ages 65 and older and those with some chronic health conditions. These same groups are also at an increased risk of severe illness due to COVID-19.
The flu shot won’t always offer you 100% protection from the flu, but it does reduce your risk of contracting it. And if you do get the flu after getting the flu shot, it may reduce the severity of your symptoms and make you less likely to need hospitalization. That’s particularly important this year, since hospital admissions usually increase during flu season. If fewer people are hospitalized with the flu, the health system may be less stressed if additional COVID-19 patients need advanced medical care.
When Should You Get Vaccinated?
It’s best to get your flu shot in early fall (September or October) before the virus starts spreading in the community. If you haven’t gotten your shot, though, it’s not too late. It takes about two weeks for antibodies against the flu to develop and offer you protection, so get it sooner rather than later. Flu season typically peaks from December to February.
There is still much to be learned about COVID-19, but one thing is for certain: Getting your flu shot this season goes a long way in protecting you, your loved ones and your community from these potentially life-threatening illnesses.
Flu shots are available at your primary care provider’s (PCP’s) office, as well as at Magnolia Express Care. To find a PCP, visit care.mrhc.org/primary-care or call (662) 664-5181.
Once you receive that frightening diagnosis that you have cancer, your next challenge is the therapy, and most of the time they aren’t too pleasant. If you are facing this ordeal, consider these 6 ways to care for yourself before, during, and after chemotherapy.
By: Amanda Ham, Nurse Practitioner at Magnolia Behavioral Health Clinic
Some of the most common mental illnesses include anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and the bipolar spectrum disorders. Symptoms of these disorders can overlap and may be difficult to differentiate. The anxiety disorders have predominant features of fear and worry. Some patients experience restlessness or feeling on edge. Difficulty concentrating may occur, as well as irritability, muscle tension, sleep disturbances, and fatigue.
The common feature of depressive disorders is a sad, empty, or irritable mood, along with physical complaints and cognitive function impairment. Cognitive functions include the following: attention, decision making, general knowledge, judgment, language, memory, perception, planning, reasoning, and visuospatial skills. Bipolar disorder has a range of symptoms that typically includes a history of a major depressive episode, as well as at least one lifetime episode of mania or hypomania. Symptoms of mania include “elevated, expansive, or irritable mood and abnormally and persistently increased goal-directed activity or energy” (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Along with these symptoms, patients may experience increased self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, increased talkativeness, racing thoughts, distractibility, and risk-taking behaviors.
The difference between mania and hypomania is the severity of the mood disturbance. Cyclothymia is a bipolar spectrum disorder that does not meet full criteria for major depression, nor mania or hypomania. Because of the ability of symptoms to cross domains, it is important to have a psychiatric evaluation for an accurate diagnosis if you are experiencing any symptoms to a significant degree. All of these disorders may require treatment with medications and/or psychotherapy. For more information or to schedule an appointment, please call Magnolia Behavioral Health Clinic at (662) 293-7635.
By: Dr. Valerie Norton, Internal Medicine Physician and Hospitalist at MRHC
Many patients often visit their doctor only when they are feeling ill, have an injury or an acute change in their health. However, it is very important to maintain a regular annual visit including full physical examination and appropriate labs as well as preventative measures such as vaccinations and cancer screenings and other advice. Your doctor provides preventive services to help you avoid health problems or to identify them early. In many cases, problems that are found early are more likely to respond to treatment. Your doctor will recommend the services that are appropriate for you based on your age, sex, and medical and family history.
Because your risk for health problems increases as you age, these preventative services are important for everyone but especially for older adults. By preventing problems, or identifying them at an early stage, you are more likely to live a longer and healthier life. It is important to ask your doctor about any necessary testing that you may need. Influenza vaccination, pneumococcal vaccination, breast cancer, colon cancer, diabetes, cholesterol and osteoporosis are important to consider and discuss with your doctor yearly.
MRHC offers a variety of primary care providers to help you navigate many of these issues. If you would like to contact one of our providers, please visit www.mrhc.org for more information.
By: Dr. Jason Murphree, Radiologist at Magnolia Imaging Associates
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer related deaths in the United States, and unfortunately, given delayed onset of symptoms 80% of patients are diagnosed after the cancer has already spread. Lung cancer CT screening offers a chance to diagnose this deadly disease earlier when it is potentially curable. Patients undergoing yearly lung cancer CT screening have a 20% decreased risk of dying from lung cancer than those not being screened.
Magnolia Regional Health Center radiology department began its lung cancer CT screening program in 2019, and I wanted to share our results with the community. We have performed screening exams on 338 patients and diagnosed 11 cancers. These are 11 people in our community we were able to diagnose before becoming symptomatic, so they could potentially receive earlier treatment and have better outcomes. As mammograms save patient lives through early breast cancer diagnosis, our hope is that lung cancer screening will do the same.
Lung cancer CT screening is now approved by Medicare and most insurance carriers. The exam may be ordered by your doctor after an office visit to ensure eligibility. Patients with no symptoms between 55-80 years of age who have smoked at least one pack per day for thirty years are eligible for screening. This low-dose CT scan is performed once per year unless an abnormality is detected.
If you or a loved one meet criteria for lung cancer screening, please schedule an appointment with your primary doctor or call 293-1152 for more information.
