Staff writer
Appointments for routine health conditions are good but aren’t a substitute for an annual physical, people in the health field say.
Most people don’t recognize the importance of an annual physical, St. Luke chief executive Alex Haines said.
During an annual physical, physicians are likely to order colonoscopies, mammograms, bone density tests, PSA tests, and A1C tests, Haines said.
“What we see is that most adults don’t schedule an annual physical because they don’t have any issues,” Haines said. “When they do have an issue, they come into the office and would assume that we are checking all those items when in reality, most of the time, we are focused on the issue at the time.”
The hospital encourages annual physicals, but reaching everyone is a challenge, Haines said.
“When we do physicals, mostly what we’re doing is to screen for things that may not show up at all,” Hillsboro Community Hospital physician’s assistant Jessica Hughbanks said. “It can pick up things that aren’t causing you problems yet.”
She recommends an annual physical every one to three years for patients younger than 50 and one yearly for others.
“We have been trying to focus on the importance of scheduling an annual physical, even if you don’t have any issues,” Haines said. “Most of the issues arise down the road, when we could have identified and corrected them before they became issues, and that is why it is so important to schedule your annual physical.”
An annual health fair each fall offers an opportunity to get many screening tests done at a reasonable cost, HCH chief executive Mark Rooker said.