VIDEO: Walmart Wellness Day 2018

TUPELO, Miss.(WCBI) – In this busy fast paced world a major retailer is providing a way for its customers to get much needed health screenings.

This was the first Walmart Wellness Day of 2018.

Since its first Walmart Wellness Day event, the company has provided more than 1-point-7 million free screenings and 225-thousand immunizations to people across the country, helping countless customers uncover existing health problems.

For some, the screenings have been life-saving. Tracey Washington is a health specialist with Quest Diagnostics which is partnering with Walmart.

“It’s important for people to come to health screenings because we want to promote healthy living. And the way to promote healthy living is why not go where everyone shops at Walmart. So with them shopping at Walmart then they’re able to get a glucose check, get your blood pressure and also get your BMI reading done as well,”said Quest Diagnostic Representative Tracy Washington.

Amanda Arnett is a staff pharmacist at the West Main Walmart. She says screenings are very important.

“To reduce cardio-vascular disease, opiod addiction. We’re trying to promote smoking cessation. High cholesterol is also an issue in Mississippi. And it is definitely important to followup with your providers to have these things checked out. And also their pharmacist so they can speak with them about these problems,”said Arnett.

Saundra Taylor is the vision center manager at the West Main Walmart. She says vision screenings can find a lot of potential problems.

“In case you have any high blood pressure, they can check for high blood pressure, glaucoma, cateracs, diabetes, they can check all of that just by getting an eye exam. It’s good to have it once a year or once every two years. If you wear contacts you want to have it done every year because the contacts are so close to the eyes that the eyes have to change more than they do if you’re wearing prescription glasses,”said Taylor.

Krista Clifton of Mooreville is a pharmarcy student at Ole Miss who helped with the screenings at the North Gloster Walmart.

“I want to be able to help people and touch other people’s lives. Whenever I had a tragedy and a sickness in my family it was helpful to be able to see the other health care providers take care of my family member and I want to be able to be like them one day. You want to be able to know where you stand with your health with your blood pressure, your glucose even your vision because it’s your body and you have one body and you want to take care of it,”said Clifton.

Amanda Edwards of Marietta Mississippi took advantage of today’s event to get screened.

“I think it’s a really good thing for members of the community to some event that at least give them an opportunity for free to check to see if they have any possible health issues coming up. And you can stop in and pickup groceries and be able to get a quick screen and know whether or not you need to go in to the doctor,” said Edwards.

Walmart says hundreds of thousands of Americans turn out for each Walmart Wellness Day event, making it America’s largest single day health fair event.