Mercy Sponsors Healthy Heart Education Programs and Cholesterol Screenings During February

Mercy Health Partners is sponsoring three cholesterol screening and educational programs at facilities throughout East Tennessee as part of Heart Month activities.

Area residents have three opportunities to participate in these programs, known as "Know Your Numbers".

• Tuesday, February 15, 2011, from 7:30-9 AM at the Judy and Joe Johnson Conference Center at Mercy Medical Center West. Featured speaker at the West education program is Kelly Caldwell-Chor, M.D., a board-certified family medicine physician with the Southern Medical Group. Mercy West is located at 10820 Parkside Dr. in Turkey Creek. Registration Deadline: February 11, 2011

• Thursday, February 17, 2011, from 7:30-9 AM in the Sister Elizabeth Assembly Center at Mercy Medical Center North. The featured speaker during the North educational program is James C. Griffin, DO, a board-certified internal medicine physician with Internal Medicine Associates, a division of Summit Medical Group. Mercy North is located at 7565 Dannaher Dr. in Powell. Registration Deadline: February 13, 2011

• Tuesday, February 22, 2011, from 7:30-9 AM in the main lobby of Baptist Hospital of Cocke County. BHCC is located at 435 Second St. in Newport. Registration Deadline: February 21, 2011

The cholesterol screening, which includes a glucose reading, is a fingerpick specimen collection with results available in five to seven minutes. For accurate results, the test requires an eight-hour fasting period. Individuals on medication should follow their normal medication schedule and diabetics should check with their physician before fasting.

To register or for more information, you may call Ask Mercy at 865-632-5200 or toll free at 1-877-368-7362. Registration is also available online at www.mercy.com. Click on the Fitness and Event Calendar and look for the Know Your Numbers program.

If you can't make it to any of these screenings, take Mercy's free online heart diseases risk assessment test, HEARTaware, at www.mercy.com. In just seven minutes, an individual can learn about their risk for heart attack and other cardiac diseases.

Mercy Health Partners facilities offer services to treat all members of the family, with centers of excellence in cardiac care, cancer care and orthopedic care. The Mercy Heart Institute has the region's most experienced team of heart specialists to help prevent diagnosis and treat cardiovascular disease. In both 2009 and 2010, St. Mary's Jefferson Memorial Hospital was named to the Thomson Reuters Top 100 Hospitals in America list in the National Benchmark Survey.

Published February 10, 2011