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ZoomCare's 1000th Patient
Last month ZoomCare cared for our 1000th patient since opening at Bridgeport Village. It's an honor and privilege to serve you and your loved ones. As our first patients have seen, ZoomCare is not health care as usual. We are Health Care on Demand. |
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Greetings,
Welcome to the third issue of ZoomNews! ZoomNews is the newsletter from ZoomCare. Our team of board certified doctors provide Health Care on Demand at Bridgeport Village 7 days a week nearly every day of the year. We're honored to have already provided ZoomCare for over 1000 people. In this issue of ZoomNews you can learn what we mean by Health Care on Demand and why it's not health care as usual.
We're also pleased to announce the launch of ZoomGrant, our new donation program for local non-profit organizations.
This issue also walks you through ZoomCare's Online Scheduling. To guarantee your visit time and to walk in to your awaiting ZoomCare doctor, be sure to go to ZoomCare.com to schedule online.
It's always a privilege to care for your everyday health care and urgent medical needs. We wish you a healthy and
happy 2007.
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| ZoomCare Launches ZoomGrant
We are pleased to let you know about ZoomGrant. Each month, Zo omCare will make a $250 donation to a local non-profit organization. Just l ike your care at ZoomCare, ZoomGrant is designed to be easy to use. Everyth ing you need to apply for a ZoomGrant is on our website at www.zoomcare.com . Just click on ZoomGrant and apply online.Please let your favorite non-pro fit organization know about ZoomCare and ZoomGrant.
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Dr. Katz's Corner: Medical Myths - Fever
Most people know that the average human temperature is supposed to be 98.6° F. However, a large percentage of people believe that their "regular" temperature is much lower than 98.6° F, like 96° or 97° F. I suspect it's because many people go to the doctor in the morning-- the time of day when our body temperatures tend to run 1 - 2 degrees lower. So when they come to the doctor and it's a bit higher than their "normal", i.e., 98°, they'll mention that for them it's a fever.
But fever, by definition, is an oral temperature of 100.5° F or above. It doesn't matter what your body's regular temperature is. True, 98.6 is not actually the set level for everyone. But you and I are warm-blooded creatures (homeotherms). Included in this highly exclusive, elite group of animals, are puppies, pirates, and pigeons. We have the ability to maintain, or even alter our temperature-not to keep it the same all day long-but to adjust the temperature based on our bodies' needs. Of course when we have an infection, our body tries to fight it off with a fever. It does that by changing the set point of our body's core temperature. Animals that can't create their own fever like geckos, toads, and tuna, don't do as well with their infections. Tuna fish don't keep their vet appointments, and I wonder if this is why. For these guys to fight off infections, they have to move themselves to a hot place. Once we as homeotherms discovered that we could change our temperature, we started doing it all day long. So not very many people who are currently living have a "set" normal temperature of 96°. A lot of my patients insist, nay-wrangle with me about this point. "You dare to squabble with me, the medical giant that I am?" I say. "You question the verity of this colossus cerebrum?" Well, I wasn't actually 100% entirely sure, so I looked it up.
Turns out I was right! Whew! 98.6° is a calculation after averaging thousands of temperature checks of thousands of humans (you, me, and yes, the pirates) over many years, over many times of the day. It also turns out that if you check your own temperature twenty times a day, you'll find that it fluctuates by up to a couple degrees in either direction, depending on the time of day, what you're doing, and what you ate, (and what you're wearing, whether you're ovulating, and maybe even what you're thinking about-whoa, cool down folks). For example, right now my temp is about 100 as I type this, drinking a tall glass of soymilk in my hot tub. Actually, I'm at my kitchen counter. I don't own a hot tub. I am drinking a tall glass of soy milk, though. I added a paper umbrella to the milk because I think they're neat.
So when people say that 98.6° is actually a fever for them, it may in fact be higher than someone is used to, but it's never a fever. Not in humans. Not even in pirates.
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Ask Your ZCP (Zoo mCare Physician)
Q: I've heard that it's better to have a skin laceration (a serious cut) repaired with special glue? Is this true?
A: Dermabond is basically sterilized medical "crazy glue" used instead of stitches (sutures). It's used for certain lacerations that are straight (instead of jagged) and where the skin edges can be pulled together easily. We use it when we can because:
- We don't need to poke you with a needle to numb the area.
- Dermabond seals the wound better, making infection less likely.
- The scar is smaller than with sutures.
- It saves you time. It takes a fraction of the time to apply compared with sutures. Sutures also require an extra visit to remove them-Dermabond does not.
All in all, Dermabond is high tech, highly convenient, and high quality. But don't forget than anything or anyone inadvertently touching the wet glue while it dries might get stuck there for 5-10 days. If that happens, your ZoomCare Physician might have to go home with you. Please take good care of him, and feed him well. We'll swing by in a week to get him.
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 ZoomCare Tips: Schedule Online
Schedule Online to guarantee you'll walk straight in to see your awaiting ZoomCare doctor.
Go to zoomcare.com and click on the right hand side of the page where it is says "Schedule a same day visit."
Go to step one and fill in a few simple details: your name, phone number, zip code, and email address.
Then go to step two (see how simple we made this?) and fill in your requested appointment time.
Step three is to tell us how you'll be paying.
Click "send request"
That's it!
If the office is open, we'll confirm your appointment immediately.
If the office isn't open, we'll confirm your appointment by 8:45 the next weekday morning or 9:45 on weekend mornings.
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 Founders' Message
Greetings,
2006 has been a year of BIGNESS* in Oregon health care. Everywhere BIG new medical complexes sprung up. Meanwhile, over in Bridgeport Village something not so big sprung up this Spring - ZoomCare. It's warm. It's colorful. It's full of state-of-the-art technology. And it's where the friendliest team of board certified doctors and associates care for people every day of the week. And most importantly it's home to what the New York Times recently named one of the 50 best ideas of the year: walk-in care, or what we call Health Care on Demand.
What's Health Care on Demand? Think of a merger of Dr. Marcus Welby, Nordstroms and Google. Here's how it works. Go to www.zoomcare.com. With a clickity-clack enter what time YOU want to be seen that day, receive your email confirmation, pull up at Bridgeport Village valet parking, and walk in to you see your awaiting ZCP (ZoomCare Physician). Remember, the Zoom in ZoomCare means no waste, no wait. You'll receive a full un-rushed visit with your ZoomCare doctor. Most laboratory tests can be run here, onsite. And best of all, we can nearly always affordably fill your prescriptions at our in-house pharmacy, saving you lots of time.
Okay, so perhaps you're thinking, "This is going to cost me an arm and a leg." Not at all. ZoomCare is in-network with nearly all the insurance plans, so just pay your usual amount for an office visit. If you self-insure (pay with cash), you are welcome at ZoomCare. In fact, more than welcome. Go to www.zoomcare.com to check out our simple, straight-forward pricing. You'll appreciate how your ZoomCare doctor includes you in the decision about diagnoses and treatments and points out the costs of your options. And you leave ZoomCare with not only clear instructions and access to online videos about your health care but also a receipt of your costs and payments. (Have you ever received a receipt from your doctor?) Bottom line: ZoomCare flat out costs less than any urgent care or emergency room.
We hope by now you're thinking, "Where's ZoomCare been all my life?". If so, maybe 2007 will be the year of Health Care on Demand where you are the star of the show and not the BIG, BIG medical buildings.
Sometimes it's the size of the idea that's really the BIG news.
Wishing you the best of health,
David Sanders, MD and Albert DiPiero, MD, MPH
ZoomCare Founders
* "Bigness, loss of community, organizations and society grown far past the human scale - these are the besetting sins of the twentieth century, which threaten to paralyze our capacity to act. Therefore the time has come when we must actively fight the bigness and overconcentration, and seek instead to bring the engines of government, of technology, of the economy, fully under the control of our citizens."
- Robert Kennedy
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