Kick start your new year with the Health, Safety and Wellness Expo
COSHOCTON – The upcoming Health, Safety and Wellness Expo is a great place for the whole family to learn more about services that can help them improve their overall wellbeing.
The fourth annual expo will be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 16 at Kids America. Admission is free and the event is sponsored by the Coshocton County Chamber of Commerce, Coshocton County Memorial Hospital and the Coshocton County Chamber of Commerce Safety Council.
“This is an opportunity for us to highlight businesses that offer services that make a difference in people lives and help make our community a better place,” said Amy Stockdale, executive director of the chamber of commerce.
The expo will feature a variety of screenings by Coshocton County Memorial Hospital including diabetes, blood pressure, heart and vascular screening, physical and speech therapy, life saving heart and vascular screenings such as stroke/carotid artery, health booths and classes on such topics as DermaScan, nutritional and fitness counseling, car and booster seat checks and home safety products.
“We know of at least three people that had issues resolved from the skin cancer screening offered here,” Stockdale said. “It can be intimidating to think about your health, but if you take advantage of some of these screenings you might be able to take care of something before it becomes a problem.”
Doctors Hoang Lim and Keith Harmon, general surgeons with the Coshocton Surgical Center, will be there to do skin cancer screenings and discuss the importance of breast and colon cancer screenings.
Dr. Lim said one of the main things to watch for in regards to skin cancer is whether or not a skin liaison has changed.
“You have to monitor them to see if they’ve changed, are itchy, bleeding or look concerning,” she said. “You also should keep an eye on skin liaisons if you have a history of sun exposure and not using sunscreen.”
When evaluating skin liaisons such as moles, Lim follows a process known as ABCDE which means she is looking at whether or not it is asymmetrical, if the borders are regular or irregular, has the color changed, what is the diameter and is it elevated.
There will be a private area at the expo where people can have a skin liaison they are concerned about looked at by Dr. Lim or Dr. Harmon. If they see something they feel needs looked at immediately there will be people there to help attendees schedule an appointment with the surgeons.
“We can take them (skin liaisons) off just like a dermatologist can, but we are easier to get into and we are in town,” Dr. Lim said.
Some skin liaisons maybe able to be removed in the procedure room at their office, but some may require a trip to the hospital.
“We are always going to err on the side of caution and take something off and there is little risk involved in doing this,” Harmon said.
The office’s staff also can help patients figure out if their insurance company requires a referral before they can see the surgeons.
“We are hoping to educate the public about our services and what they need to look for,” Lim said.
Another screening will be provided at the Health Services of Coshocton booth. They are currently the only home care provider with noninvasive bioimpedance cardiograph (ICG) technology through Cardiac 360, which is run by Complex Care Partners.
“It’s a tool that allows us to do a non invasive cardiac scan,” said Jennifer Eubanks, a nurse practitioner with Complex Care. “We started the program in nursing homes and are the only ones to have the rights to the technology that was developed in Israel. It’s used primarily with patients with heart failure and is Medicaid and Medicare approved.”
The test takes less than three minutes and is as simple as hooking a patient up to sensors and then waiting for a report to be printed out.
“You can interpret the report right there in the nursing home,” Eubanks said. “We can scan someone every week and adjust their medicines as needed. It’s also nice because you don’t have to get a patient undressed to run the test and if they are in bed you don’t have to get them out of bed.”
The technology also is very portable and goes with Eubanks and her team right to the nursing home. Results from tests also can be e-mailed right to Eubanks’ phone and she can adjust the care patients need from wherever she might be at that time.
“Riverside Manor has been using it for quite a while and they love it,” Eubanks said. “Lafayette Pointe also uses it and so does Echoing Hills and Lafayette Meadows.”
The goal of the program is to reduce the rate of re-hospitalizations.
“We are trying desperately to keep patients from going back to the hospital,” Eubanks said. “We want to be proactive rather than reactive.”
Health Services will have its own machine and plans on using it for any heart failure patient referrals that it receives.
“They are our pilot program,” Eubanks said. “We want to see how it’s accepted by the community and how the continuation of care goes.”
Several of the 50 plus vendors also will focus on the safety side of the expo.
Shoe Sensation will be there sharing information about safety work boots, you can learn more about how to safely use Scentsy warmers and Bath Fitters can help you make the bathroom a safer place.
You also can gather information on mental health, nursing homes, home health agencies, learn about relaxing tai chi, the power of massages and much more.
Kids will enjoy activities planned just for them on Kids America’s little soccer field and MedFlight and emergency services vehicles will be there.
“MedFlight was a big hit last year,” said Connie Lahna, project coordinator at the Chamber of Commerce. “There was snow on the ground, but little kids and adults were still going out there. The crew was fantastic.”
Stockdale agreed with her about how great MedFlight was.
“They took the scary out of it,” she said.
Families and individuals who attend the expo also will have the opportunity to check out what Kids America has to offer.
“If you want to kick start your new year this is a great opportunity to it,” Stockdale said. “You will learn about a lot of different services right here in your own community that you can take advantage of. This is a great family event and making wellness and safety fun is the priority of it.”
josie@coshoctoncountybeacon.com
Category: People & Places
