Using Medications Appropriately
Before drugs are available for marketing to the U.S. public, they must undergo a stringent review and approval process by the Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. The purpose of this process is to ensure that safe and effective drugs are available to Americans.
The review process includes reviews of clinical studies and trials and looks at the numbers of people involved in the studies. The process evaluates the benefits to many as compared to risks for a few people. It also considers things such as drug-drug interactions. The review process currently takes an average of 19 months per drug review.
Cautions
Even though there is a stringent process for approving drugs that are marketed to the public, not all risks and toxicities will be known prior to its widespread use in a population. Only substances categorized as drugs require regulation by the FDA. Dietary supplements, such as herbs, vitamins and minerals, are not studied and approved by the FDA. Consumers have the responsibility to determine the safety of such products.
Guidelines for Taking Medicine
Be sure you are taking the right drug. Prescription drugs can only be prescribed by doctor. OTC medicines may be recommended by a doctor or pharmacist or other health professional (such as a nutritionist).
Be sure you understand all the directions for using the drug, including:
Additional Guidelines
Safe Use of OTC and Prescription Medicines
When giving or taking any medicine, the following precautions should be observed.
Elements of a Health Care System
In order to provide services for the full range of health care needs that exist in a community, a wide spectrum of care is needed. Patients move in and out and through this spectrum of services based on their current need or anticipated health needs. One way of viewing the health care system is by looking at the level of care needed by the patient and the settings and providers that have developed to provide that care. The current system that has evolved throughout the Twentieth Century is now in a period of rapid change, due to the high cost of health care and rapidly developing technologies.
Technological advances have resulted in new services and settings for care. For example, as a result of the new X-ray technology, diagnostic centers have developed to do heart scans. Changes in the way health care services are financed have also resulted in new settings for care. For example, freestanding centers (not attached to a hospital) have developed to provide diagnostic services (tests, lab work, x-rays, etc.) that were once only available in the hospital.
As an example of both technological and financing changes in health care, free-standing surgery centers now exist for many types of surgeries that were once done only in a hospital setting. Outpatient or non-hospital based services are cheaper than are services provided in a hospital setting. More and more services that are now provided in a hospital setting will likely move to a non-hospital setting as technology progresses and health care costs must be contained.
Who You Gonna Call?
Given the recent changes in health care services and settings, it can be confusing to know where to "enter" the health care system-where to go to get just the right amount of care needed. Where you go is often determined by what s available in the community or how the service will be paid for-"out of your pocket" or by an insurance company.
Ideally, people enter the health care system at the lowest level that can adequately treat them. For example, for treatment of the flu, you would go to a primary care doctor, not to a pulmonary doctor (a physician who specializes in treating lung diseases). This is the idea behind "managed care."
In managed care, health care is managed by a primary care provider (a family practice doctor, a pediatrician or perhaps, a nurse practitioner) who helps determine when additional health care services are needed-when to see a specialist, when to go to the emergency room, when to be admitted to the hospital. Primary care is at a lower level and cost than is specialty care. Specialty care is at a lower level and cost than inpatient care. By getting care in the lowest level setting, costs are kept lower.
Cost is an important factor. Emergency room (ER)care is expensive. The costs of running an ER include 24-hour staffing with highly trained doctors and nurses and technicians and expensive diagnostic and treatment equipment. Many insurance companies will no longer pay for a visit to the emergency room unless it is an absolute emergency. They wouldn t pay for an earache to be treated in an emergency room, for example. But what about people who have no insurance and cannot afford a private doctor in a community that has no public health clinic? They will probably end up in the emergency room for care that could have been provided in a doctor s office or a clinic.
Timing is another important factor. Ideally, people would practice good preventive care, have recommended health screenings and see a doctor regularly to catch illness early. This could avoid unnecessary hospitalizations and trips to the ER or to specialists. Sometimes the "system" isn t set up to help people use it-there may not be a doctor s office open after the factory closes in the afternoon. There may not be a doctor or clinic available in the community, so people put off going for care until their symptoms become an emergency.
Teacher Tip: Note that at students age, parents would make needed health care arrangements. However, students need to begin to understand how the health care system works and when and how to use it. Students may also be the only people available to help someone in an emergency situation; they must be able to recognize an emergency situation and know how to respond appropriately.
Over the Counter Medications
Assessing Treatment Methods
Key Issues in Selecting Medical Treatment:
Conventional medical treatments are the standard (mainstream) medical treatments used by most physicians. They have been scientifically tested and found to be both safe and effective. The result of such research is reported in professional journals (for physicians, scientists), which are reviewed by other doctors or scientists in the field (peer review). These conventional treatment methods have also been reviewed and approved by the federal government through the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Investigational treatments are still being studied in a "clinical trial," a research project that may take years to complete. Clinical trials use the scientific process to determine whether a treatment is safe and effective. A treatment may be a drug or another method of treating disease in human beings. Before it can even be tested in humans, though, a treatment is tested in the laboratory, then on animals, then, if it is determined to be safe, it is tested on humans. If it is verified to be safe, the FDA approves its use in medical care.
Alternative therapy is treatment that is promoted as a cure, yet has not been scientifically tested, or if tested, was found to be ineffective. Alternative therapies are usually promoted by those not in the medical profession. Such therapies place patients at risk because they may not be safe, and their use may keep people from using conventional treatment that could be helpful.
Complementary therapy are supportive methods used in addition to mainstream conventional therapy. These methods are not intended to cure disease but to help manage symptoms. Examples of complementary therapy include meditation, herb teas, etc.
Symptom Management
In terms of their management, there are three categories of symptoms of illness: non-urgent symptoms, urgent symptoms and emergent symptoms.
Non-urgent Symptoms
Non-urgent symptoms can be managed by the individual. These conditions are relatively mild and short-lasting. A visit to the doctor or clinic is not required. A visit to the emergency room is inappropriate use of health care resources.
Example: coughing that accompanies a viral infection
