Manage Your Health
Nothing matters more to most of us than staying healthy - and keeping our loved ones healthy too. Getting peace of mind about health care begins largely with finding the right doctor - one who values relationships based on openness and trust and provides high quality care. |
||
| With the right tools you can become a more able, skilled and confident manager of your health. | ||
Personal Health Record |
||
| A Personal Health Record (PHR) is a valuable tool that you can use with your doctor and other members of your healthcare team. An ideal PHR will provide you with a complete and accurate summary of your health and medical history. It contains life-saving information such as medical conditions, emergency contacts, family health history, allergies, blood type, medical test results, lab reports, living wills or health proxies, insurance policy information, immunization dates, medications, charts/ x-ray. Unlike health records and charts, which are controlled and used by health care providers, personal health records are managed by patients. The personal health information can be recorded and stored in a paper format. This low-cost option can be bound with paperclips or stored in a basic notebook or make use of a commercially produced organization system. Many people prefer to store and update information on their personal computers. The information can then be recorded and stored on a portable storage device such as a smart card or USB flash drive. |
|
|
Set Workable Goals |
||
| Workable goals set by you, with help from your doctor, should be things that you want to do, not what someone thinks you should do. Goals should be achievable and action specific. When setting a goal, ask these questions: What? How much? When? How often? Goals you may have for a doctor's visit could be as simple as "what do I want to get out of this visit?" It may be just to find out that everything is still okay, or you may have some very specific questions. Write them down to make sure they're addressed during the course of the visit. |
|
|
To watch a clip about setting goals, click here. |
||
Choose a Healthy Lifestyle |
||
| In general, a healthy lifestyle includes not smoking, eating right, and exercising. Most people think having a healthy lifestyle involves drastic change. While you will have to change some things you are used to, a gradual changes to get you where you need to be are okay too. Work more activity into your day. For example, take the stairs instead the elevator/escalator. Add more fruits and vegetables into your diet. A handful of grapes or carrot sticks are great examples. Most importantly, if you are living with chronic conditions that can mean a lot of lifestyle changes in order to make sure that the symptoms don't get worse. |
Healthy Lifestyle Resources |
|
