The Highland Medical Center Health Fair Returns for its 17th Year

The Annual Highland Medical Center Health Fair is coming up just around the corner, with some old and new events for everybody’s health.  Debbie Perdue, Executive Director of the Center, tells us more.

Ms. Perdue says, “I wanted to invite everybody to our annual Health Fair.  This is our 17^th year of having our annual Health Fair, generally in April.  It’s a Tuesday and Wednesday.  It’s going to be April 18^th and 19^th from 7:00 in the morning until 11:00 in the morning, and we’ll be offering lots of new things this year that we haven’t had in the past.”

Behavioral Health Coordinator Jeanne Flinn continues by sharing more details about several of those offerings.  She says, “Dr. Bill Shaver, who was one of our pharmacists will be available each morning from 7:00 to 9:00 to answer any questions that you might have about any of your medication.  Rhonda in physical therapy and the wellness center will be available on Tuesday from 7:00 to 9:00 to give tours of the wellness center and provide you information about the equipment, and if you want to join our wellness center, you’ll be able to do that at the same time.  We have Michelle back this year doing the chair massages again.  We also have back this year the Drug Take Back program with the Highland County Sheriff Department, and that will be both days.  A new one that we have sort of added this year is pinwheels with Debbie.  Pinwheels, as you probably know, are a symbol of children, and April is child-abuse prevention month, so we will be selling pinwheels for a dollar each, placing them in the garden at the Medical Center, and the proceeds will be going to Healthy Families that serves Highland County.  We have our usual lab work, the lipids and glucose, that’s a free blood test.  I will be doing blood pressures, weight and body mass index, which is also free.  Then we do the Comprehensive Metabolic Profile, which is for glucose, liver and kidney, the TSH, which is for the thyroid, and then the CBC which is your cell count.  That one costs $20.  And then for men, we’ll be doing the PSA, which a blood test is recommended for men, and that’s fifty and older.  That test costs $15.

Debbie Perdue concludes, “Dr. Duong Hoang is our new dentist who started with us in August of last year, and they are going to be doing free dental screenings between 7:00 and 9:00 on both days.  We also have added this year, Diabetic Retinopathy screenings, for our pre-diabetics or diabetics.  That will be a free offering that we’ll be doing, as well, and you would need to schedule for that.  So, please call us if you have any questions or would like to schedule the lab appointments, and you can call us at 540-468-6400 or check our website, which is www.ourhmc.org.  We will also update Facebook to let you know what we’re going to be providing at the Health Fair, as well.”

There will be several more events and activities at the health fair, including information from the Virginia State Police Department, the Highland County Volunteer Rescue Squad and Volunteer Fire Department, and more.