The Oregon Clinic
As healthcare providers, we at The Oregon Clinic puts the well-being of our patients and our staff first. So, we are glad to be able to once again serve our patients with the care you and your family’s needs.
With Governor Brown’s announcement that non-emergency medical procedures can start again as of May 1, we will begin reopening for some procedures at most of our clinic locations.
When it comes to your health, we want to make sure you’re receiving the best quality care possible. That includes working with your other healthcare providers to make communicating about your care as easy and convenient as possible.
That’s why The Oregon Clinic is excited to now offer eConsults to primary care providers and other specialists.
eConsults are an easy and convenient way for healthcare providers to access to our Board-Certified specialist doctors as we find new ways to work together remotely.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the specialty physicians at The Oregon Clinic are now offering virtual health visits to many patients. With Oregon and Southwest Washington residents asked to stay home and restricted from visiting physicians for non-urgent appointments, many patients have been unable to access necessary specialist health care.
With the beginning of the year, comes the usual rush of consults to my office for abnormal liver tests. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but my suspicion is that these visits are related to the many holiday parties and their associated excessive drink and dietary indiscretions—which brings me to the topic of alcohol.
Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs; e.g. Prilosec/omeprazole, Prevacid/lansoprazole, and others) are among the most commonly used medications, with prevalence estimates ranging between about five percent and fifteen percent of the adult population. Recently, there have been increasing concerns about the safety of long-term PPI use, leading many patients to abandon their PPIs in favor of H2 receptor antagonists (H2RAs; e.g. Pepcid/famotidine, Zantac/ranitidine, Tagamet/cimetidine) or to stop acid suppression therapy altogether. While the tenet of “first, do no harm” remains paramount in the practice of medicine, it is important to use caution when interpreting reports of risks associated with PPI use.