Northwest Dive Club

I need to do a diving physical. I have Kaiser insurance. I would like to find a primary care physician in the Kaiser system who dives. I asked DAN for a list. I didn't find any of the DAN recommended physicians on the Kaiser list. I would prefer the Portland/ Vancouver area.

Thanks for any leads,
Jeff

Providence has a hyperbaric medicine deptartment. They are local and are tied in with DAN. You also might try Tualatin Valley Fire. They also do dive physicals.

I know that neither of these are through Kaiser but they might point you in the right direction.

Bric

what does a dive physical involve?

The dive physicals that I have taken are pretty basic. Blood work, cholesteral check, eye exam, ear exam, chest X ray. The only real change that I remember is called a spirometer test. This test checks you lung capacity and efficiency, it also checks your lungs for blockages. I have seen two types of machines, one was handheld and the other was a booth. It was similar to a phone booth. I was hooked to a contraption and you exhale. It was actually very hard. You exhale all of your air and then you continue to force air out. You relax for a few minutes and then do it again. Sounds much simpler than it was.

I had a PFO test... which was fun, and weird at the same time.