OhioHealth Doctors Hospital Hosts Community Health Fair
On Friday, May 9, OhioHealth Doctors Hospital hosted a community health fair in Founders Hall 1 and Founders Hall 2 located in the medical office building at Doctors Hospital. The event was free and open to the public.
“I would say in my opinion, the Preventive Health Care screening was a huge success,” said Amanda Maynard, DO, OhioHealth internal medicine and director for outpatient services.
The goal was to bring as many resources as possible together in one place for patients and the community. The health fair offered services such as screenings for skin, lung, breast, and colon cancer, as well as checks for vision, blood pressure, and diabetes.
“We scheduled mammograms and colonoscopies, we provided diabetic nutrition counseling, we made new diagnoses of Diabetes, and we educated on skin lesions guiding patients to next steps.” Dr. Maynard said. “We had multiple vendors there, and they provided over 40 patients with community resources.”
Dr. Maynard came up with the idea of holding a health fair when she first joined Doctors Hospital three years ago.
“I really saw a need for patients in our community to obtain services for regular health screenings, at no/low cost, and felt compelled to do something,” said Dr. Maynard.
The event was a collaboration between Doctors Hospital medicine faculty, residents and staff, medical students from Ohio University Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine (OUHCOM), and medical experts from the OhioHealth Doctors Hospital Community Care Clinic.
Community organizations including Brightview Addiction, ANDHealth, Mid-Ohio Food Collective, Franklin County Public Health, SARNCO, Exact Sciences, Humana and Emerald Psychiatry & TMS Center were part of the fair and helped make it a success. OhioHealth’s substance use navigator team, dietitians, and care management staff were also on site to provide additional support and guidance.
"The ambitious collaboration among graduate medical education (GME), Doctors hospital, the community, and OUHCOM partners, demonstrate the passion and the drive to make high-quality primary care accessible to our most vulnerable patients,” said Joy Walton, MD, OhioHealth internal medicine-pediatrics physician and Community Care medical director. “This is the heart of health equity - meeting people where they are.”
During the health fair, the Community Care Clinic was fully operational, welcoming walk-in patients who needed to be seen by a healthcare provider that day. Services included acute and chronic disease management, labs and radiology, care navigation, and same-day consultations with specialists as needed.
“We believe this is crucial for our community because of the overwhelming vulnerability of our patients—both medically and socially—in the face of limited resources and barriers to care within a complex medical system,” said Dr. Walton. “We are optimistic that this gesture of providing more accessible care will uplift our community's opportunities to receive high-quality preventative care, improve their health outcomes, and ultimately provide hope to a community that desperately needs it.”
“I’m so appreciative of the support,” added Dr. Maynard. “And I hope this will help our community and the patients we serve in many ways.”
