Public Health 101 hits the airwaves
Oct. 9, 2024
By Mary Wade Burnside
If you have a chance to listen to the radio in the mornings, Monongalia County Health Department has something new for you.
Mon Health Medical Center’s CEO David Goldberg has graciously given over their half-hour “Talk Radio” spot on WAJR (104.5 FM and 1440 AM) on the last Monday of each month to Dr. Brian Huggins, our health officer.
A week ago Monday, Dr. Huggins took the mic at 8:30 a.m., along with Board of Health president Sam Chico, to discuss “Health Department 101.”
Huggins took over his position from Dr. Lee B. Smith this summer and has been managing changes, some of which were already in progress. Those changes include ones to Clinical Services, which he now oversees.
“Our goal is to expand services,” Dr. Huggins said. “Right now, we’re really focused on creating efficiency and finding the right mix of staffing to be able to increase the number of appointments that we’re currently offering.”
One new service, introduced in June, has already received some attention — HIV PrEP, or HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, which can keep individuals from catching the infectious virus.
“It’s been super successful,” Dr. Huggins said. “We’ve got well over 15 regularly returning patients and we’re getting new patients every week.”
Coming soon will be Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) exams, which Dr. Huggins, a Lieutenant Colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, had already been certified to perform.
“Almost every licensed pilot requires an aeromedical exam,” Dr. Huggins said. “I’ve been in the Air Force doing it for military personnel for 12 years.”
Dr. Huggins has earned certification for all three classes available, which means he’s able to perform exams for commercial airline pilots too.
“They have to get an exam at least annually, and once they hit 40, once every six months,” he said.
But of course, Monongalia County Health Department has five other programs besides Clinical Services: MCHD Dentistry, Environmental Health, Infection Control & Disease Prevention, Threat Preparedness and WIC, the federally-funded nutrition program that MCHD operates in six counties.
Our most exciting new arrival has been a brand new, customized Winnebago to replace our original mobile dentistry unit. Smile Express was launched in 2018, utilizing a pre-owned RV that had been retrofitted as two dental treatment areas. Because Smiley 2.0 was modeled to the specifications of Smile Express coordinator Tiffany Summerlin, it has better feng shui, a bigger secondary dental operatory and all sorts of bells and whistles.
It also features a more efficient and comfortable station for dental assistant Velvet Urgo, with all the same high-tech offerings as the last one, including panoramic X-rays and software that allows a dentist back at the health department to look at images in real time. Plus, unlike its predecessor, this one has a wheelchair lift.
Summerlin, Urgo and Smiley were back out on the beat last week, seeing patients at recovery centers. As usual, these individuals expressed a great deal of appreciation to have a caring provider help them make plans for their smiles.
“It’s so great that you guys do this program!” one exclaimed.
Monongalia County Health Department offers so many services that they can’t all be listed in a column. But you can check us out at www.monchd.org.
We’ll leave you with these announcements. As the weather gets cooler, it’s the best time to get a radon test, which can be performed by certified specialists at MCHD. Call 304-598-5131 or check out monchd.org/services/radon to make an appointment.
Finally, MCHD will be holding a Trunk or Treat event from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29 at our main office at 453 Van Voorhis Road. Please come by and grab some candy. Because we’re the health department, there will be some toothbrushes in the mix too!
Mary Wade Burnside is the public information officer at Monongalia County Health Department.