Continuing health care after the health fair

NOXUBEE COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI)- It’s a great opportunity for some patients to take advantage of free testing and screenings.

Local hospitals like Noxubee General want to make sure the information they share during a health fair continues to make their community healthy year round.

If you ever have a high blood pressure reading – or find out that your blood sugar is elevated, you know you should follow up with your doctor or nurse.

For some patients, staying in touch just doesn’t happen.

For Beverly Clark, the real work begins when the health fair ends.

“Usually that’s what will get somebody’s attention is that they find out they have an abnormal lab or something like that and then they’ll start following up with their physicians to realizing the seriousness of the illness that they have,” said Clark.

Nurses like Beverly want their patients to follow up with a doctor.
But sometimes, they don’t have a ride or insurance. And that can stop them from getting the care they need.

“We have a telephone number we contact them back, and we do offer follow-up services on those things. We try to figure out a way even if they don’t have insurance so we can get them taken care of,” said Clark.

But for some patients, it takes a little more encouragement to make the appointment.

“Generally with people, it takes an event before they really get serious about it, but at least they’re enlightened, and education generally is repetition. You can’t tell somebody something one time, and they recall it. You have to tell them over and over again, and usually, they experience it, or they see someone else experience some type of illness, and they realize that they don’t want that to happen to them,” said Danny McKay.

Eloisteen Trimble appreciates the free testing. She is here to continue monitoring her health.

“Well, I’m here because this really is a good thing for people that I have just been diagnosed with being diabetic and for people to get their cholesterol and blood pressure and all that checked it’s a good thing,” said Trimble.

Trimble says she is taking steps to change her life but for many others change can be hard.

“People don’t like to change and change their lifestyle it really takes a commitment to do it and the urge to say forget it is very strong,” said McKay.

Beverly Clark tells us diabetes, hypertension, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease are some of the things they see most often.