United Way of Monroe/Lenawee Counties’ Health Check clinic returns to Adrian

ADRIAN — After a nearly 2 1/2-year hiatus brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Lenawee County residents were once again able to access low-cost health screenings through a program offered by the United Way of Monroe/Lenawee Counties and its partnership with ProMedica Charles and Virginia Hickman Hospital.

The United Way’s Spring 2022 Health Check clinic returned to Adrian Thursday for the first time since October 2019. More than 50 people took advantage of the services offered at the clinic at the Fr. Louis Komorowski Activities Center on the St. Mary’s campus of Holy Family Parish.

Comprehensive blood screening profiles were completed at a cost of $20. More than 20 tests were included. Additional tests for vitamin D at a cost of $10, a stool kit for $5, and HA1C — also called glycohemoglobin — at a cost of $15 were also available.

“I don’t know where else you can get this type of panel testing for $20,” Laura Schultz Pipis, associate director of the United Way of Monroe/Lenawee Counties, said. “People have depended on this clinic, because it is such a good deal.”

Thursday’s Health Check was the fifth time the United Way has offered the clinic in Lenawee County since 2018. Health Check has been a United Way staple event in Monroe County for more than 30 years. Interest in the clinic was beginning to reach its height in Lenawee County, Schultz Pipis said, but the early stages of the pandemic in 2020 put a halt to many of the public health labs and screenings.

Medical labs that would ordinarily process the tests collected at the clinic were busy with COVID-19, Schultz Pipis said. ProMedica recently told the United Way it was ready to resume the clinics, which was welcome news because people have been calling the United Way to find out when they would have the clinics again.

The most recent Health Check offered in Lenawee County in October 2019 had an attendance of nearly 100 people, she said.

“We’re hoping that this will get back into people’s regular routines,” she said.

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The fall 2022 Health Check in Lenawee County will likely be in October in Adrian, Schultz Pipis said. A date has not yet been confirmed.

The United Way has typically worked with churches as host sites for the clinics, due to space, location and availability. Many of the volunteers Thursday represented the Presbyterian churches of Adrian and Tecumseh.

The blood panel included 22 tests, such as a complete blood count, glucose, kidney function, sodium, potassium, chloride, carbon dioxide, thyroid function and total cholesterol check.

Vitamin D, according to a pamphlet handed out during the Health Check, “is essential for healthy bones, and a lack of it can lead to health problems, including cardiovascular disease.”

The HA1C test is “an aid in diagnosing and monitoring diabetes,” the informational pamphlet said. “It is an index of the person’s blood sugar from the previous few months.”

At least 30 people were lined up by 8 a.m. at the doors of the church’s activities center, which Schultz Pipis said was a welcome sight. Throughout the morning and the early afternoon, however, attendance fizzled out.

“There’s probably a lot of variables to take into account,” she said.

Costs for the project are held to a minimum due to partnership collaborations. A limited supply of free vouchers for the blood panel tests were available for those unable to afford the $20 fee.

Family Medical Center, Lenawee County Health Department, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and the Region 2 Area Agency on Aging were additional Health Check partners present at the clinic.

All test results are mailed to the address on the registration form filled out at the clinic. If results are not received within two weeks, individuals should call 734-242-1331. The United Way encourages all Health Checks participants to interpret their lab results with their primary care physician.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Telegram: United Way’s Health Check clinic returns to Adrian, Lenawee County