Public Health in our Community

Building a Healthier Community: a message from LRGHealthcare President & CEO, Tom Clairmont

What is a rural hospitals role in the community? In the past, the answer to that may have been primarily to care for the sick or injured. LRGHealthcare will always care for the sick and injured, but we also want to prevent illness and injury. Our role, along with all of our partners in the region, is to build a healthier community.

Today, people are looking at health in terms of public health: systemic efforts toward prevention, wellness initiatives, and management of chronic disease. Our focus goes well beyond doctors and hospitals we need to make sure we have clean air to breathe, drinking water that is safe and healthy food to feed our population. We need to work on injury prevention, emergency preparedness for todays world, and managing chronic diseases that effect so many. We look at problems that exist across our community, such as childhood obesity, heart disease, smoking, and diabetes.

Taking a broader view of community health is important--multiple agencies, groups, and individuals working independently to address problems creates a lack of coordination and duplication of efforts. Evidence shows that if all of those entities broaden their perspective and work together to address a wide range of health issues, the result is a healthier community.

LRGHealthcares role in the community is no longer to serve as just a hospital. Our providers, employees, and Board members are engaged in public health efforts across the community and the State, working to address issues ranging from heart disease and childhood obesity to adequate housing, quality education, and regional economic development. We are proud to support the United Way and their efforts to better the health and welfare of our community. We are committed to protecting our environment, and are working every day to lessen our environmental footprint and become a greener organization. We are active in the Lakes Region Partnership for Public Health and the Caring Communities Network of the Twin Rivers, and we work with agencies across the community to ensure that we are collaboratively building the strongest, most effective safety net we can possibly build for our friends and neighbors here in the Lakes and Three Rivers regions.

The health of our community is in all of our hands. Being proactive and responsible about handwashing and childhood immunization; staying home from school or work if we are ill; choosing environmentally-friendly products and recycling; encouraging our families to lead healthy, active lifestyles; wearing seatbelts, bike helmets, and keeping our children safe with proper use of car seats; choosing not to smoke these are all things we can do to not only protect our own health, but the longterm health of our community.

Building a healthier community is a big job, but its one we can accomplish by working together.