General Questions
Are you accepting new patients?
Yes! We are accepting new commercial patients. Please view our accepted insurances section to determine if we are in network with your insurance.
Is there a right way to wash your hands?
A timely question coming into cold and flu season, proper hand washing is one of the best ways to decrease your odds of becoming sick and/or spreading illnesses to other people. But people often don’t wash their hands long enough. Your hands should be washed with warm running water and soap, scrubbing the hands for at least 20 seconds and rinsing well. Leave the water running until after drying your hands, and then you should use the towel to turn the faucet off. Otherwise you contaminate your hands. How long is 20 seconds? — about the time it takes to sing “Happy Birthday” twice.
At 20 years old, do I need a “complete physical” with diagnostic testing like those you performed on my parents recently?
Complete physicals and health recommendations vary with age, gender, family history and what we refer to as risk factors. Research tells us that the typical “complete physical” of the past actually did very little to find or prevent disease. So we now use these visits to target those conditions patients are at risk for at that particular point in their life. At age 50, we are aggressively screening for cancers, diabetes and heart disease. At age 20, you are at greater risk from STD and hepatitis exposure, accidents and depression. Your “complete physical” should include a history and physical examination, but also focus on counseling for lifestyle modification, (i.e. smoking cessation, exercise, weight loss, skin cancer protection and STD education). Lifestyle modification at age 20 will greatly impact your quality of life, morbidity and mortality later in life.