Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States Encourages Women to Adopt Healthy Behaviors

Week Recognizing Women's Health follows Mother's Day

ROCKVILLE, Md., May 9, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- As part of National Women's Health Week May 8-14, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States encourages women to invest in their health by scheduling preventive screenings and adopting wellness behaviors that will help them live longer, healthier lives. National Women's Health Week begins Mother's Day each year.

"Women often ignore their own health and instead focus on caring for others," said Janice Beaverson, Associate Medical Director of Quality for the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group. "When women take some simple steps to improve their health, the results can be life-changing. We hope women will hear our message and use this week to schedule mammograms, cancer screenings, cholesterol tests, blood pressure tests, or other overdue checkups."

Kaiser Permanente's state-of-the-art electronic medical record, KP HealthConnect®, alerts Permanente physicians when their patients are due for preventive cancer screenings.  All Permanente physicians—from primary care doctors to ophthalmologists to dermatologists—receive information about whether their patients are up to date on their preventive screenings, and will encourage patients to schedule these screenings.  At Kaiser Permanente, we use our coordinated physician group of nearly 900 doctors and our advanced technology to keep our members as healthy as they can be.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a list of behaviors that women should incorporate into their daily and weekly routines. Chief among them is the suggestion that women engage in a weekly program of least 2 hours and 30 minutes of moderate physical activity, 1 hour and 15 minutes of vigorous physical activity, or a combination of both. Women can achieve this goal by joining Kaiser Permanente's Every Body Walk! Program. Thirty minutes of walking 5 days a week is all it takes to get started. You can get more information by clicking on www.everybodywalk.org.

Other recommended behaviors are:

• eating a nutritious diet;
• avoiding risky behaviors, such as smoking and not wearing a seatbelt;
• paying attention to mental health, including getting enough sleep and managing stress;
• keeping blood pressure in your normal target range.

Additional information about National Women's Health Week is available at http://www.womenshealth.gov/whw/about/.

About Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States

Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States region, headquartered in Rockville, Maryland, provides and coordinates complete health care services for almost 500,000 members through 30 medical centers in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C.  Founded in 1980, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States is a total health organization comprised of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc., and the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group, P.C., an independent medical group that features approximately 900 physicians who provide or arrange care for patients throughout the area.  Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States is considered one of Maryland's "Top HMOs," according to the Maryland Health Care Commission.  The health plan was ranked in the nation's 100 top commercial health plans and 20 top Medicare health plans – and the #1 Medicare plan for Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. – by "NCQA Health Insurance Plan Rankings 2010-2011 Private."  For more information about Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States, visit www.kp.org or follow us on Twitter, www.twitter.com/KPMidAtlantic.

SOURCE Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic States

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