Podcast #2

Welcome to the second edition of Your Health, Aurora's audio program to help you and your loved ones stay healthy. I'm Neal Linkon. Please remember that we want your input on these programs, so let us know what you think. Any idea or complaint is welcome. We'll even take compliments. You can reach us at internet@aurora.org.

They say that Americans have become the new foodies of the world, focusing more time, money and effort and what tastes good and good taste than anywhere else on earth. But for too many, food becomes a vehicle or tool to manifest emotional problems. When that happens, people can get very sick, and even die.

Pam Elgin is a licensed professional counselor for what's been termed eating disorders. For me, it's making another trip to the buffet, but for Pam and her clients, it's no laughing matter.

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Try our online screening tool to see if you might be at risk. Go to www.Aurora.org/Eating.

We often hear from patients who need or want copies of their medical records. There are a lot of laws that govern what we can and cannot do with your medical records, so the process isn't as simple as you might hope.

An authorization form is required when you are requesting copies of medical records or asking that we disclose your health information to 3rd parties. If you need your record copies to be sent to another health care provider for treatment purposes, you may either submit this form or merely contact the appropriate facility's medical record department.

Please note that in some cases, a fee will be charged for medical record copies. The facility's medical record department will be happy to provide you information about fees, expected turnaround times and other information related to your request.

We cannot fulfill medical records requests via email or an online form. Please note that if you desire copies from more than one facility, a separate request must be made to each facility as medical records are maintained separately by each site. For more information or to download an authorization form, please go to www.Aurora.org/Records.

We talked about Care management in our last edition. In case you missed it, Care Management is a focused approach to planning and giving care to the people we serve. The “care management approach” means that we work together to:

• Define health care needs of the people we serve
• Research the best ways to meet those needs
• Design a plan of action that can be carried out by all of our health professionals
• Measure our results against national standards

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 real meaningful and useful information to help you and your loved ones.

Antibiotics are great when you need them. But did you know that these drugs won't cure coughs, colds or the flu? Antibiotics kill bacteria, not viruses. If you think you need an antibiotic, please talk with your health care provider.

Did you know that…

• Antibiotics don't work for viruses that cause colds, flu and bronchitis.
• Overuse of antibiotics creates resistant bacteria (in other words, these bacteria learn to “outsmart” antibiotics).
• Infections caused by these resistant bacteria are hard to treat and can be serious.

If you have a cold or the flu, here are some tips:

• Get extra sleep and drink plenty of fluids.
• Take acetaminophen or ibuprofen as needed for fever or pain.
• Use a vaporizer or saline nose drops as needed.
• Gargle with warm salt water.
• See your health care provider if symptoms are severe or do not improve in 10 to 14 days.
• Let your health care provider decide if you need an antibiotic.

Meanwhile, there are things you can do to keep from getting sick from bacteria

• Use antibiotics only when your health care provider thinks they will work.
• Make sure your immunizations (shots) are up to date.
• Ask your health care provider about getting a flu shot before each flu season.
• If you are age 65 or older, ask about getting the pneumonia vaccine.
• Wash your hands often to cut down on the spread of germs.

To learn more about care management, go to www.Aurora.org/CM. And to learn more about our initiative on antibiotics, go to www.Aurora.org/Antibiotics.

That's our program. We hope it was helpful in some small way. As always, we are eager for your feedback and suggestions, so let us know at internet@aurora.org. I'm Neal Linkon, and until next time, this has been Your Health.

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Your Health, Edition 2 (12:54)

What is a podcast?

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Podcast software automatically detects new programs and downloads them to your portable media player when you sync it up to your computer.