HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Living in the midst of a pandemic has brought health to the forefront of many people's minds and while COVID may be at the top of that list, experts say it's important to stay on top of regular checkups and doctor's appointments.
"What we've seen because of COVID is a push for people to try and get into the doctor or we're seeing slowdowns in the amount of people that the ER can see or urgent care clinics can see," said THRIVE Alabama Development Director Mark Moore.
Emergency rooms and urgent care clinics across Alabama continue to overflow and establishing a relationship with a healthcare provider not only helps you speed up the process in the future, but it also takes away some weight off of the healthcare system's shoulders.
"That way when you do have something that's pressing and urgent, you already have the relationships, you know, set because the first appointment is going to take much longer than say a sick visit appointment," said Moore.
As always though, if something is an emergency, by all means, go to the ER. But, if you can wait, experts say it's best to set up an appointment rather than waiting for hours on your end and overwhelming the ER.
"One of the concerns I have in COVID-19 of course, certainly, access to the healthcare system, you know, if people are having chest pain, symptoms of stroke, other symptoms of that nature, they still need to be checked and go to the emergency room to get taken care of because those are immediate and urgent situations," said Alabama Department of Public Health Area Administrator Dr. Karen Landers.
"Certainly, our emergency rooms are overwhelmed and people don't need to go to the emergency room unless it's a matter of life limb or sight, and the reason being, again they're overwhelmed taking care of COVID patients and we really need our regular health care provider know certainly urgent cares can fill in the gap in some instances, but again, many of them are covered up with COVID testing."
Landers says it's better to take care of things early on than later down the road when it comes to your health.
"I think preventive medicine is always superior to treatment and again," said Landers. "Such as keeping up with our immunizations. Certainly, women keeping up with mammograms on a regular basis after a certain age, you know, persons having again, other preventive tasks depending on their age. It's still really important because you want to have a medical home, you want a health care provider to be available in the event that you do become ill."
Building this relationship can make your life easier, especially in times where you are sick and in need of care.
"The importance of having a relationship with a primary care provider and having regular annual checkups, so that you both can work together on being aware of things like diabetes, hypertension, all the things that can affect us all, so that you can get an early start on those and get regular testing so you can hit that off and not wait until you're really sick and wondering oh why am I so ill, and then having to play catch up for treatment," said Moore.
"I just remind people, keep your immunizations up to date, eat a healthy diet, follow the screening test recommendations of your private physician in order to keep yourself out of the doctor's office any more than possible and keep yourself out of the emergency room, to keep yourself out of the hospital," said Landers.
