It has been a very busy fall for ECFC. In addition to general patient care and all the day-to-day administrative issues, we are faced with another task. The state of MN has mandated that all recipients of state-sponsored health insurance have access to and are members of a state-certified Health Care Home. Eagan Child and Family Care is one of ...

What I dislike about my job: (OK, folks, this topic was a suggestion from someone. So, if you happen to be my boss reading this, please understand I truly mean every word I say. Including the fact that I know I work for a great company that does its best to respond to what we need. And considering some of the things that could happen - ...

Do you have your disaster plan ready?? The avian flu spurred organizations to evaluate their disaster plans and to revise or add provisions in response to a national biohazard or infectious disease disaster. Our county health department has been holding meetings for care providers to assist them in developing individual disaster plans as well as ...

During my 2 years attending graduate school in the University of Utah Family Nurse Practitioner program I remember hearing the phrase about being sued, ''it's not a matter of IF but WHEN.'' This has always worried me, especially now that I am a business owner. I have good medical liability insurance, but the thought of being sued is scary. ...

Over the past year or so, nurse practitioner organizations have received less and less financial support from the pharmaceutical industry for various events at national and state conferences. This started as a result of significant shifts in marketing practices that have nothing to do with the NP profession, and now is also a reflection of overall ...

Many times in my day to day practice I run into patients who have financial instability. These patients have difficulty paying their daily bills, let alone medical ones. Sometimes as a provider of care you need to be resourceful for your patients' sake. Remember that many pharmaceutical companies have programs that will give patients free samples ...

I am very thankful for the good relationship we have with our pharmacy. Our clinic is located inside a grocery store that has a pharmacy. The pharmacists and pharmacy technicians are great. They are well known to the community as most of the patients know them by name and have been using them for years. They fill the prescriptions accurately and ...

Presently the scope of practice in Retail Clinics is limited to minor acute illness. In the future there seem to be many areas of preventive care that the idea of convenient and lower priced would work well with. Blood pressures and offering other screening is used in marketing the idea of the retail clinic to the general public. It is just a ...

The past few weeks have been quite busy and somewhat chaotic for Eagan Child and Family. Following my absence to care for my father, we suffered another unexpected blow: my partner's mother passed away. Shortly thereafter, our administrator took ill and it seemed like there was no one around to ''mind the store.''  I thought it might be ...

How many times have patients come to you for advice and after evaluation asked, ''Do I have to take a pill? Isn't there something natural I can do?'' Well, I have listened to their cries and have decided to hire a hypnotherapist/Reiki Master. This individual has 12 years experience in hypnotherapy and at least 5 years in Reiki healing. I ...