Check out ValueOptions’ Achieve Solutions website. You’ll find information on handling stress, children’s matters and managing work and life; as well as interactive quizzes, and spotlights on current medical and mental health issues. Click here for Achieve Solutions.

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Department of Health and Human Services offers these tips when you are talking to your doctor:

• Give information. Don't wait to be asked
  • Tell your doctor what you think he or she needs to know
  • Even if it makes you feel embarrassed or uncomfortable, tell your doctor personal information
  • Bring a "health history" list with you, and other medical information such as x-rays
  • Always bring any medications you are taking, or a list of those medicines
• Get information
• Ask questions. Write the questions down before you visit
• You may want to bring someone along to help you ask questions or remember answers
• Take notes. Ask your doctor to draw pictures if that helps explain something
• Take information home
• Ask for written instructions
• Your doctor may have brochures and audio or video tapes that can help, or know where to get some
• Once you leave the doctor's office, follow-up
• If you have questions, call
• If your symptoms get worse, or you have problems with medicines, call
• If you had tests and do not hear from your doctor, call for results
• If you need certain tests, make appointments and have the tests done
• If your doctor said you should see a specialist, make an appointment

Here are some excellent tips about preventing medical errors with prescription medications, from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

• Make sure all of your doctors know about all prescription and over-the-counter medications and dietary supplements you are taking.
• Make sure your doctor knows about any allergies and adverse reactions to medicines.
• When your doctor writes a prescription, be sure you can read it.
• Ask for information about your medicines: What is it for? How am I supposed to take it and for how long? What are the side effects and what do I do if they occur? Is this medicine safe to take with other medicines/dietary supplements I am taking? Is there anything I should avoid while I’m taking the medicine?
• When you receive medication, make sure it is the medication your doctor prescribed.
• If you have questions about directions on your medicine labels, ask.
• Ask for written information about the side effects your medication could cause.

The Health Plan's Prescription Drug Mail Service and Retail Pharmacies check for any potential drug interactions when they fill your prescriptions. Written safety precautions are sent with every new prescription mailed by the Mail Service Pharmacy.

Following are links to other websites for more information on healthcare and patient safety:

• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
• AHRQ Questions Are the Answer
• CDC's Heart Disease
• CDC's Vaccines & Immunizations
• FirstGov for Consumers
• Healthier Feds
• HealthierUS
• Hospital Compare
• My Family Health Portrait
• National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute

• National Institutes of Health
• NIH's National Cancer Institute
• National Library of Medicine/NIH's MedlinePlus
• National Women's Health Information Center
• Nutrition.gov
• Office of Personnel Management
• Office of the Surgeon General’s tobacco cessation website
• The President's Challenge
• President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
• Screening Tests for Men
• Screening Tests for Women
• U.S. Department Agriculture's New Food Pyramid
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthfinder®
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• U.S. FDA - Consumer Health Information for You and Your Family
• U.S. FDA - Make Your Calories Count - Use the Nutrition Facts Label for Healthy Weight Management
• We Can!
• Women's Health Resources

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