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We live rural, about 30 minutes from a tiny hospital that deals mostly with emergencies. We signed up for med evac for a very cheap rate that covers everyone in your household. Gives us peace of mind.
Just a note about taking a pic of one's meds; if so, be sure to get the name and the dosage. Yesterday, I was up at my follow up and the Doctor was wondering if I was getting enough of a certain additional. Since this was a planned visit with a new Doctor, I had all my meds and additionals I take with me, reached into my bag, and pulled out my Multi-V jar and handed it over......still wrote me another prescription.
We are part of a hospital system using Epic, portal is called MyChart. We’ve been using it in various locations since 2014. We purposely pick hospital systems that use Epic so they can access all our records. Example, yesterday I saw my neurosurgeon. I had checked in thru MyChart the day before updating everything. Got there and check in was a breeze. So was my time with the nurse, although I did tell her there was a mistake in my medications that I couldn’t correct. She corrected it for me. But going over my medications was a breeze.
My husband and I also keep an updated list on our phones in a data file in Dropbox that we each can access offline. The other key, is we each have access to each other’s MyChart file. That allows us up to date access of everything.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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I currently have 5 different doctors that I see on a regular basis, annually now. They are all within about 5 miles but we are planning to move 90 minutes away in the spring when we sell and downsize. I will continue to go to them for my annual checkups, and visit friends from the neighborhood while back in the area. More important is the availability of urgent or emergency services, I'm not going to drive 90 minutes while bleeding or in severe pain, nor pay for an ambulance to go that far. Where we plan to move is 11 miles from the big full-service hospital, but only 5 minutes or less from 3 different urgent care centers, and one out-patient surgery center.
I called the local Medflight service and they said Medicare pays for the flight if it's deemed necessary by the caregivers. That's the flight that includes 5 hospitals in the area. "The area" up to 100 miles.
I am guessing in my case, close to this or that doctor that a person my age needs to visit frequently.
But......
....yesterday, I caught a finger between two panels in the main garage door. I was already to go into town, so wrapped it up in a bandana, and headed in, to come into range of the phone towers so I could call the insurance and see where I had to go. I then remembered an Urgent Care at the end of the run to the ranch, town side. So I went there to at least call from if I had to, they could take me, got cleaned, radiated, checked, bandaged, and sent to my local pharmacy to be pilled.
It went well (and I think of all the ways it could not have gone well), so 3 things.
1. With cell phones and urgent cares popping up everywhere, where does that fit into our considerations of close to medical? Now, there can be catches to our ways of lives and the way things are. When I got there, they wanted me to scan a code......and I don't scan. So I had to wait for a moment while they gave me the forms. Had I needed to go elsewhere, I might have had difficulty for no data plan and no Garmin/Tomtom in the truck.......yet.
2. There is always 911/ambulances but even in the city....how much does it have to be life or death for us to call when we know how big that bill will be (as I found out taking care of Mom). On a side note, this is one of the considerations of why I get station wagons/crew cabs.
3. These days with this or that operation, I carry my DL, med insurance card, credit card, major doctor calling cards around my neck. I am thinking of having a medical "dog tag" card made up, such as listing my meds......I couldn't remember one last night.
What are we saying, what do we mean when we say close to medical?
For people of a certain age, it usually means superior medical facilities that are research affiliated and world class. Most of us know their names.
This does not mean close to a storefront urgent care.
For a couple of years, we lived in NE Pennsylvania. We had a realtor who worked part-time. She was always well dressed but and put together, but it was obvious that she wore a wig. Many times, she made the trip alone. There were days that she couldn't work because she had to make the two-hour trip into NYC to Memorial Sloan Kettering.
Her PA doctors wisely referred her to MSK. She needed treatment that was unavailable in her area.
A good friend of mine also has cancer. She lives in Little Rock AR. For ten years, she and her husband make the trip to MD Anderson in Dallas TX. Although they lived near University of Arkansas Medical center, her oncologist felt that more aggressive and cutting-edge treatments would be available.
I live in the Cleveland area. If one of us ever have the need a world class hospital - one that people travel to when they have serious health issues, we have not one, but two renowned medical facilities.
The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital.
I could not live in a medical desert no matter what my age.
^^^^
A friend of mine (70) had a very rare form of melanoma. Lives in Honolulu, got the best treatment they have, and it came back. Her doctor told her to go to MD Anderson in Houston, most emphatically. She fortunately had the money to keep going back and forth and is now there for followup.
Medical, needed a caregiver for bathing, broken humerus,upper arm, hospital therapist had to see me first for evaluation---3-4 weeks.
Called.a service, 55 people. waiting for a caregiver.
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