Email Us (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine

Warren, MI

Primary Care Medical Home

It’s Vaccine Season And We Are Here To Guide You Through The Options!

October 8th, 2021

Vaccine Season

 

Yes it’s that season again.

 

via GIPHY

Okay actually we are talking about VACCINE SEASON.  Hehe…

The Flu virus for example lives longer indoors in the winter, so we are just taking a quick break from our Improving The Patient Experience series to discuss vaccines and answer a few frequently asked questions.  Please keep in mind that this post isn’t meant to be the final word on all vaccines, and that we encourage you to call and ask us if you have additional questions!

Vaccine Season and Your Options:

Let’s address a few vaccines that you may already be considering and/or should consider.

  • Flu:  Flu shots are indeed safe and effective, are available for people over the age of 6 months and you can safely get one even if you’re egg allergic.  Folks over 65 can get the high dose vaccine which is a quadruple dose.  If you have any questions about the flu vaccine please let us know and you can make an appointment to get one with us.  Here is the CDC guidance on Flu vaccines.
  • Covid-19:  The Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective so please get one if you still have not.  If you have any questions about them please ask, and if you are over 65 please schedule a booster – a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine if it has been 6 months since your second dose.  For now this is for those who have had the Pfizer vaccine, and you cannot mix them.  In other words if you had two doses of the Moderna vaccine you cannot get the Pfizer vaccine for your booster dose.  The Covid-19 vaccines and the Flu vaccines are safe to get at the same time, but the Covid-19 vaccine is not administered at our office.  They are available at other locations including some pharmacies.  Call us and we can help you with that, and here is the CDC guidance on Covid-19 vaccines.
  • Shingles, Pneumonia, and Tetanus are all available as well.  Here is the CDC guidance on Shingles, Pneumonia and Tetanus.

There are other diseases which are preventable with vaccines, so if you have questions about any of them please call us and we can advise you, and here is the CDC guidance on all the available vaccines as well.

Please take care of yourselves this vaccine season as the weather starts to get colder, and we are here to help!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

 

Improving The Patient Experience: Part 2 – Checking Your Blood Pressure

September 24th, 2021

By Dr. Scot Goldberg, MD

Hello everyone!  This is part 2 of a series around how we work towards improving the patient experience!  Part 1 related to Covid-19 and Flu vaccinations, and here we are going to discuss hypertension and the importance of checking your blood pressure!

 

Blood Pressure

 

Checking Your Blood Pressure

The U.S. Preventitive Task Force gave their current recommendation statement on April 27, 2021 concerning hypertension.  The USPSTF recommends screening for hypertension (high blood pressure) for adults 18 years or older with office blood pressure measurements.  They also recommend obtaining blood pressure measurements outside the clinical setting for confirmation before starting treatment.

So what does that mean for you?

Well everyone knows that high blood pressure can cause major problems  These can range from the head (early dementia and bleeding strokes) all the way to the toes causing peripheral artery disease and amputations, and all organs in between.  Many studies have shown that lowering blood pressure to acceptable levels (140/90 and preferably 130/80) can prevent these problems.  We have many new medications that can help lower blood pressure but what a lot of people don’t recognize is that non-medical remedies can be just as effective such as diet, exercise and better sleep.

  • Diet: Here at South Macomb Internal Medicine we focus pretty heavily on lifestyle choices that help impact these things, especially when it comes to nutrition for example with many posts here on this blog by Nanette Cameron, RDN.
  • Exercise: We can also refer to physical therapists / trainers for proper exercise regimens.  Generally we recommend some form of aerobic activity for 30 minutes at least 5 days per week.
  • Sleep: We also analyze sleep disorders on a regular basis and if necessary can refer to a sleep lab or perform in-home sleep testing to make a diagnosis.  Often we are told of patients falling asleep while receiving their instructions at home when they first put on the CPAP mask because they are so sleep deprived – NOT because they are bored I assure you.  Ha!

Of course we offer the newest in medications and often we can control blood pressure with one pill per day, but what’s old is new, and one of the oldest medications available is spirnolactone which has seen a resurgence as this diuretic has been shown to lower blood pressure especially in difficult to treat cases.

Our doctors here are well versed in each of these approaches and treatments and continue to stay up to speed on any new medical developments.  Please make sure you are staying on top of this and let us HELP you to do it!

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Improving The Patient Experience

A little background on this initiative and some highlights as outlined by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:

Medicare Star Ratings is a rating system developed by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to help consumers find the best Medicare Advantage plan for them. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan has two MA plans – Medicare Plus Blue℠ for its PPO members and BCN Advantage℠ for its HMO members.

CMS assesses a member’s health plan experience through the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems, or CAHPS, member survey. The survey asks patients to report on their experiences with a wide range of health care services. A large portion of the CAHPS survey is driven by the member’s experience with his or her physician’s team, including such things as follow-up on labs and imaging, and getting timely doctor appointments.

And, most importantly for patients, a positive patient experience results in better adherence to protocol, better relationships with health care providers and a feeling of mutual respect between them and their medical team.

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

Let’s Talk About White Coat Syndrome – For Real This Time

We recently posted an article on our Facebook page from themuse.com entitled 10 Reasons You Should Go To The Doctor (Even When You’re Healthy).  It’s a bit of a recurring theme we’ve returned to in the context of a COVID-19 pandemic that doesn’t seem to want to completely go away (GET VACCINATED if you haven’t yet – yes it’s safe).  We don’t want people to neglect any other health issues they may have that went untreated while they were home avoiding the virus for a year or so and Dr. Goldberg wrote about that too.  We want people to take care of their health and see their doctor even when they are healthy as the article states.

White Coat

But maybe it’s not that easy for everyone.

We’ve written about White Coat Syndrome before on this blog but the one time we made it a featured topic it was all in good fun with a humorous take on why you might have it.  However we do acknowledge (as we did in the humorous post) that it’s certainly real for many and we want to explore that in a little more detail.

In our humorous post on the topic we included a link to this article from Medical News Today that goes into great detail about White Coat Syndrome – what it is, diagnoses, and even prevention, but that article is a little light on the prevention part.  We would like to point you to another one very thoughtfully written by a family practice in South Carolina called Thrive Family Medicine about how to overcome it with several actionable tips.  We hope this helps!  The last thing we would ever want to see is one of you avoiding a check up because of your anxiety over visiting the doctor’s office.

Take care of yourselves, thank you for reading and we will see you soon!

 

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc for updates, articles and fun!

Call us and ask to be added to our email newsletter that comes out every couple weeks!

Telehealth and virtual appointments are still available.

Nutritional services are also available with Nanette Cameron, RDN. Don’t forget to ask us for a $25 gift certificate for trying dietary services with Nanette the first time for patients who have insurance coverage!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

Getting the COVID-19 Vaccine, Feeling Good and Ready to Care For You All!

January 8th, 2021

COVID-19 Vaccine

We wanted to check in with an update to let you know as of this writing that Dr. Goldberg is two weeks and two days out from his first COVID-19 vaccine shot and he’s doing great!

COVID-19 Vaccine

 

That’s our guy!!!.

He had soreness in his left arm for one day which is actually a good thing.  A little soreness shows that the vaccine caused an inflammatory reaction – and that it’s working.  Otherwise he has been doing very well, and his second and final shot is next Wednesday!

We’re all getting the COVID-19 Vaccine!

Additionally Ascension sent an email that ALL associates and their staff can now come in for vaccines and so all of our South Macomb Internal Medicine Staff have been invited to get vaccinated!

COVID-19 Vaccine

 

We’re back OPEN and fully operational at the office – ready to serve and ready to care for you!  Better days ahead.  Everyone stay safe, masked, social distanced and well!

Stay tuned for updates and we’ll see you soon!

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South Macomb Internal Medicine

28401 Hoover Rd.  Warren, Michigan 48093

Phone: (586) 276-7530

South Macomb Internal Medicine has been designated a Patient Centered Medical Home by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan.

Join us on Facebook at facebook.com/SMIMdoc for updates, articles and fun!

Call us and ask to be added to our email newsletter that comes out every couple weeks!

Telehealth and virtual appointments are still available as well as nutritional services with Nanette Cameron, RDN. Don’t forget to ask us for a $25 gift certificate along with a copy of Nanette Cameron’s cookbook The Perfect Day for trying dietary services with Nanette the first time for patients who have insurance coverage! Nanette is also available virtually!

Feel free to click on the categories and keywords below to find more content as we add more to the website!

The Patient Centered Medical Home – What It Is All About

The idea behind the Patient Centered Medical Home, the PCMH, is that it is our goal as a medical practice to meet as many of our patients’ medical, physical and mental health care needs as possible. This means, that from preventive medicine, to acute or urgent care, to chronic care, we are focused on the wellness of our patients.

In addition, as a PCMH we have a team of care providers focused on our patients.

In order to provide comprehensive care, we have a team of care providers to meet all of your needs. We bring together the expertise of our physicians, nurses and medical staff as well as the expertise of our affiliated hospital, St John’s, Macomb.

The majority of a patient’s physical and mental health care needs should be met through a team-based approach to care in a PCMH and the PCMH delivers primary care that is oriented towards the whole person.

What is meant by caring for the whole person?

This means that care for patients includes being sensitive to and understanding of their personal and family values, culture, preferences, and unique situations/needs.

The goal of a PCMH is to cohesively coordinate patient care across all parts of the health care system. In this way, care at hospitals, specialist medical offices, home health care, and community services are all coordinated, and the patients’ best care is kept in mind.

Even minimizing wait times, enhanced office hours, and after-hours access to providers through alternative methods such as telephone or email are part of the PCMH ideal. As well, as part of a PCMH we focus on relationship-based health care. This is another goal of the patient centered medical home and towards this end, we partner with patients and their families. The unique needs of every patient are taken into account.

Patients find that during transitions between sites of care, such as when patients are being discharged from the hospital, transferring to a rehab facility, or the like, the approach of a patient centered medical home is extremely beneficial. The focus on points of transition within the broader medical system is so important to patient care and a positive outcome for the patients and their families.

We are proud to have been designated a PCMH and aspire to meet all of  the goals and touch points encouraged by this model of medical practice. Our patient centered philosophy is well aligned with the PCMH model of care. We welcome any questions about the PCMH model and how it may fit with the needs of our patients.