Subject: November Newsletter: Take Charge of Your Health

Take Charge of Your Health with Diabetes Prevention

Diabetes Awareness Month happens every November. This year’s theme is “Take Charge of Tomorrow: Preventing Diabetes Health Problems.” Many patients with diabetes worry about complications. Often, this is because they have had a family member or friend with diabetes who did have problems and that’s what they remember. When it’s not managed, diabetes can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves and heart. But the good news is—there are a lot of things you can do to control diabetes and reduce your risk of complications.

Diabetes Prevention Blog

Service of Remembrance: Honoring Lost Loved Ones

The holidays can be a difficult time for those who have experienced the loss of a loved one, yet it's also an important time to remember those we've lost.

For those who were unable to attend our recent Service of Remembrance event, SMU will be rebroadcasting the service on the following dates:

Friday, Dec. 1st - 8 PM
Saturday, Dec. 2nd - 5 PM
Sunday, Dec. 3rd - 1 PM
Monday, Dec. 4th - 3 PM

Individuals can also rewatch the service online at any time by clicking the button below.

Service of Remembrance

Concerned About Lung Cancer? Screening Offers Peace of Mind

If you have been a lifelong smoker, you may wonder about your risk of developing lung cancer. According to the CDC, smoking is the number one risk factor for lung cancer, with cigarette smoking linked to 80-90% of lung cancers in the United States.

Spencer Hospital offers lung cancer screening services to help detect lung cancer in early, more treatable stages. If you have concerns, we encourage you to visit with your healthcare provider to see if a lung cancer screening is right for you.

Lung Cancer Screenings

Have a Happier Holiday Season: Holiday Stress Management

Oh, the holiday season is upon us! It’s a time of merriment, gatherings of family and friends, a flurry of activities including shopping, baking and holiday programs … And, for many, it’s a time of stress. Angel Smith, Clay County Public Health nurse, provides tips and tricks to help "de-stress" during the holidays and add a little more "all is calm" back into the season.

Holiday Stress Management

Giving Tuesday

The Spencer Regional Healthcare Foundation is participating in Giving Tuesday, a global day of giving! We have been blessed that our community has been supportive of healthcare services by giving to the Spencer Regional Healthcare Foundation. This holiday season we are raising dollars for communication boards for treatment rooms in the new Emergency Department. The new system will allow for important information about each patient's care to be pulled directly from the electronic health record so the information is updated in real-time, keeping the patient and family members well informed.

Highlights of the new communication boards will include your care team names and photos, along with any tests ordered, such as radiology images or labs, and the status of each test in process. If our emergency staff is paged to respond to a patient in crisis, a special alert will appear on the communication boards to inform you that staff is engaged with another emergency. Our goal is to alleviate patient apprehension, strengthen staff-patient communication and improve the patient experience.

Although the electronic patient information boards are a small part of a large emergency department construction project, they are an important component in enhancing communications. And for this portion of the emergency department expansion project, we'd welcome your support.

This upgraded technology will allow Spencer Hospital to continue to improve its exceptional standards for care, and you can be a part of it.

We thank you in advance for your support, and wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy holiday season.

Make a Difference. Make a Gift Towards Healthcare.

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