Harvest season is in full swing.  Do you know how to keep yourself and your children safe?  Here are a few helpful hints to keep all of us safe this harvest season:

1.   Be mindful of farm equipment when on the road.  Remember that large farm equipment has a lot of blind spots.  These types of machines do not move very fast, so slow up way in advance to prevent rear-end collisions.
2. Do not enter grain bins without turning off all equipment first to prevent being caught up in an auger.  Also make sure someone is aware that you are in a grain bin and if possible use a safety harness to prevent falls when climbing on grain bins.
3. Make sure that you are well rested when manipulating large farm equipment.
4. Eat properly to keep your energy levels up.
5. Keep an open line of communication with farm hands and/or family as to where you will be working and when you will be home.
6. Be careful when taking prescriptions and over-the-counter medications.  Some of these medications may make you drowsy, so if you can alter when you take these medications to prevent drowsiness during the day do so.
7. Teach your children to stay clear of big machinery and augers – make sure that they are seen before they approach someone utilizing farm equipment.  The best way to keep your child safe around farm equipment is through education.  Enrolling your child in a Farm Safety Course would be a great way to teach your child how to be safe in the farm setting.

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Are you confused as to when is the appropriate time to go to the Emergency Room (ER)?  Do you know what services and care your family doctor can provide to you if you are injured or ill?

The Emergency Room is easy to use, but also costly for you as a patient.  Emergency Departments were started as a result of better ways to care for patients with some type of trauma.  It originated from the military where better care for the wounded meant more patients survived and thrived.

Emergency Departments were designed to care for high risk events like trauma, broken bones, and serious injury and illnesses.  These problems often need costly supplies and equipment.  Great care for bad problems and when needed the ER can help save lives.

Often, the ER can be overused for problems that are not very high risk.  Tests that are done may not be needed or have already been done in your family doctors office.  Physician and staff training are different for the physicians who work full time in the ER.

Family Medical Center of Hastings offers many services that they can perform in the event of an illness or emergency.  Illnesses such as colds, coughs, earaches, fevers, sore throat, flu like symptoms and urinary tract infections are things that you should not be utilizing the ER for.  Family Medical Center of Hastings can perform strep tests, influenza testing and we are able to perform blood tests if necessary to help us make the correct diagnosis for your illness.  Our wait time for most of our tests that we perform have little wait time and results can be given out along with proper treatment such as antibiotics etc. if needed in a timely fashion.

Our providers can stitch you up in case you have a laceration.  Family Medical Center of Hastings has their own x-ray machine to perform on site x-rays in the event of a possible broken bone.  They can also put casts on.  If the situation is serious, our providers can reach out to surgeons in the case if your broken bone needs surgical treatment. 

Our staff and  providers know their patients and know what tests you have had done recently in the clinic.  The fees that you would occur at our office would be less costly than going to the Emergency Room.  A provider is on call 24 hours a day 7 days a week for you to consult with if you are questioning whether you need to go to the Emergency Room.  You can be seen the day you call if it is urgent.  If the provider feels that it is an urgent matter that requires you to go to the ER, they won’t hesitate to tell you to go.  Your health and care is in their best interest!

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