MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain lab teams partner with Jackson County Dept. of Public Health to conduct county employee wellness tests

6/26/2012

MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain lab teams partner with Jackson County Dept. of Public Health to conduct county employee wellness tests

Sylva, N.C. – MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain laboratory employees recently partnered for the first time with Jackson County Dept. of Public Health workers to conduct wellness tests for county employees. 

As part of the county’s open enrollment period for benefits, all Jackson County employees participating in the county’s voluntary wellness plan recently were screened at the health department with the assistance of MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain lab workers. The MedWest-Harris lab also was involved with processing those lab results. 

“This is a good partnership utilizing local resources for providing lab tests that we collect,” Jackson County Manager Chuck Wooten said. 

Jackson County has about 375 employees and about 95 percent of the employees voluntarily participate in the county’s wellness program, he said. The employee wellness program, which has been in place for about five years, leads to healthier employees and health cost savings for the county, Wooten said. 

“We want to try to identify any potential risk our employees may have that they may not realize they have,” he said. “Our whole objective here is to give every opportunity we can to address any health concerns they may have.” 

Paula Carden, health director at the Jackson County Dept. of Public Health, said MedWest-Harris lab workers provided assistance with drawing county employees’ blood for the screenings. Tests included glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides and hemoglobin A1C screens, as well as PSA tests for men when age-appropriate and nicotine screens for self-declared non-tobacco users. 

Kim Saunooke, lab manager for the MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain hospitals and the outpatient labs at MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Franklin, joined MedWest-Harris lab employees Sherri Milner, Paula Coggins, Dee Dee Queen and Mary LeFevers and MedWest-Swain lab employees Diana Allman, Janie English and Lori Kirkland in helping with the blood draws at the health department. 

“We enjoyed the opportunity to work alongside the health department employees and to build that relationship and to help take care of people in our community,” Saunooke said. 

MedWest-Harris employees in the hospital’s registration and billing departments were involved, too, she said. 

Wooten said he was glad the county was able to partner with MedWest-Harris on the wellness testing and was “very appreciative” of the efforts of MedWest-Harris’ lab employees, adding that they went “beyond the call of duty.” 


Photo cutline: Team members from MedWest-Harris, MedWest-Swain and the Jackson County Dept. of Public Health recently began working together to conduct a variety of blood tests on hundreds of Jackson County workers as part of the county’s wellness program. Workers who conducted testing recently included, from left, Jackson County Dept. of Public Health employees Libbie Shelton, Julie Creason and Scott Fisher, and MedWest-Swain lab employees Janie English and Diana Allman. Others who participated but are not pictured were MedWest-Swain employee Lori Kirkland, MedWest-Harris employee Paula Coggins, Mary LeFevers, Sherri Milner and Dee Dee Queen, and Kim Saunooke, lab manager for the MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Swain hospitals and the outpatient labs at MedWest-Harris and MedWest-Franklin.