Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Joshua Lucero: Staff photo Roosevelt General Hospital hosted its fourth annual health fair on Saturday morning. Kelly Goss, left, and Peggy Kizer-Catlin, right, of Portales go over the results of their cardiopulmonary screening with RGH Director of Cardiopulmonary Alex Wynn.
link Joshua Lucero: Staff photo
Roosevelt General Hospital hosted its fourth annual health fair on Saturday morning. Kelly Goss, left, and Peggy Kizer-Catlin, right, of Portales go over the results of their cardiopulmonary screening with RGH Director of Cardiopulmonary Alex Wynn.
Staff writer
Amanda Kaberlein went to Roosevelt General Hospital on Saturday to take her grandmother home, but ended up with a car seat and a free health check up.
Kaberlein was one of an estimated 1,000 visitors to the fourth annual RGH health fair, where a number of screenings were performed at no cost.
“I’ve never been (to the health fair). I thought it was awesome. I didn’t know they did all that,” Kaberlein said.
Kaberlein was one of 25 parents who took advantage of the health fair’s car seat clinic, where members of Safer New Mexico Now had technicians on hand to fit seats in vehicles and demonstrate their proper use.
In addition to receiving a car seat, Kaberlein said she received a cardiopulmonary screening.
“It was pretty cool. I got a lot of information,” she said.
Portales resident and Clovis Municipal Schools teacher Dawna Beatty said she decided to get a free flu shot and a new bicycle helmet for her son from the Portales Fire Department.
Tersa Bonifant, RGH’s infection control manager, said more than 150 flu shots had been given out by the Clovis Community College student nurses before 11 a.m.
Christy Sneed of Roswell said she and her family came to Portales just to check out the health fair and get flu shots.
“We got a lot of good information and learned a lot of things,” Sneed said.
She said she liked the fair because it catered to adults and children alike.
RGH Director of Cardiopulmonary Alex Wynn said he performed cardiopulmonary screenings on more than 200 people on Saturday.
People were able to walk through the RGH clinic and talk to staff about their height, weight, vision, lung capacity, and even bone density at no cost.
“Everything turned out well; we got a lot of positive referrals,” Wynn said. “The cost is cheap and it helps people detect things early.”
Jason and Sarah Victor of Portales said they brought their whole family.
Sarah Victor said they managed to get something for everyone and picked up the blood screening panel provided by RGH at a reduced cost.
“It was good. It was good to find out information about our health and our kids got bike helmets,” she said.
RGH staff operated a screening booth at the hospital entrance as a precaution after recently diagnosed Ebola cases in the U.S.
Staff at the booth screened visitors in their cars before they could enter the parking lot with questions about travel to Africa and if they had been in contact with anyone who had traveled from Africa.
RGH CEO Dr. Larry Leaming said the screenings went smoothly during the four-hour event and will continue until Ebola has been eradicated in the U.S.
Portales resident Sherri DeWitt said she was glad the staff was screening everyone before they entered the hospital parking lot.
“It was good that they were asking travel questions,” DeWitt said.
Leaming said the hospital did not receive any complaints about the entrance screenings and plans on having a booth at next year’s health fair just to greet visitors.
“We tried to make it feel more like a greeting than an inquisition,” Leaming said. “People said they were appreciative. It was great to welcome people and just ask a couple of quick questions.”
