11.07.06
Laughlin Memorial Hospital Staffers Conduct Health Fairs for Greene County School Personnel
By BILL JONES
Staff Writer
Laughlin Memorial Hospital staffers are in the midst of conducting "health fairs" for students and staff members at county schools this month.
Plans to hold the health fairs were announced in October by Director Schools Dr. Joe Parkins.
He told the county school board during its October meeting that the first of the health fairs was to be held on Oct. 25 at Chuckey Elementary School.
On Friday, a health fair was in progress at Chuckey-Doak High School for school staff members and students from that school and from Chuckey-Doak Middle School.
When a Greeneville Sun reporter and photographer visited C-DHS on Friday morning, Laughlin Memorial Hospital staff members, including Registered Dietitian Ashley Head; Beverly Gott, a registered nurse and diabetes counselor; Jeff Miller, of the cardiopulmonary department; and Chris Ferrell, a registered nurse who coordinates the hospital's Nurse Camp program, were sharing health information with students and offering a variety of health screenings to staff members.
Head said hospital staffers were speaking with students about such things as healthy eating and offering tips on such things as proper meal portion sizes.
For school staff members, she said, the hospital personnel were offering a variety of services.
At 7 a.m. Friday, the hospital staffers said, a team from the Laughlin Memorial Hospital laboratory had visited the high school to draw blood from participating school staff members so that a variety of medical tests could be performed.
The tests offered to school staffers as part of the health fairs included blood sugar/cholesterol screening, they said.
In addition, Head said, pulmonary-function testing and body-mass index testing were being offered on site during the health fair, as were free blood-pressure checks.
Also, Laughlin Memorial Hospital staff members were making available to school employees during the health fairs information on a variety of health-related topics, including:
* high blood pressure recognition and prevention;
* women's health;
* mammography and breast health;
* chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; and
* diabetes.
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