Mental Health First Aid is an educational course that teaches people how to approach mental health and substance use challenges.

So the skills that it teaches you is how to listen non judgmentally, how to assess, how to pick up on signs and symptoms when someone may be experiencing mental health challenges, and then above all else, how to connect them to appropriate professional help.

The beauty of mental health first aid is that it is beneficial for everyone. We all have mental health, and mental health first aid is health education.

Anyone in the community can benefit from this course and feel more prepared and confident to help each other through a mental health crisis.

Baptist Health Richmond really adopted this program and has gone all in on mental health first aid training because we see the rise in mental health challenges. You are daily going to deal with individuals who are facing mental health challenges, mental health crisis, sometimes battling with the value of their own life. And so it provides a blueprint that shows you in black and white how you can be effective and how you can truly help someone in probably one of the most difficult times of their life.

That's why Baptist Health Richmond is all in on it because we understand the need in our community.

Heart disease is the number one killer of adult men in the United States.

And when we talk about the cardiac related deaths in men, in many instances, what we are talking about is heart attacks and the complications that arise from a heart attack. The most common symptom that we typically encounter is chest discomfort. Other patients may experience shortness of breath. They may experience a sense that their heart is racing or beating irregularly.

One of the things that we try to get out as a public service message to the community is the importance for men to seek medical attention as early as possible.

At Baptist Health Richmond, we have the capability of doing emergency heart catheterizations and opening a blocked artery, which is causing the heart attack. We have staff that's available twenty four hours a day. And if you present early into your heart attack, we can perform this minimally invasive procedure. And once the blocked heart muscle dies before we have the opportunity to use these techniques that are available here.

Kentucky has one of the highest rates of lung cancer in the entire country. The other problem we have in Kentucky is that often it is diagnosed at a late stage, where there's not as much we can do about it as compared to if we were to find [it] at an earlier stage.

About six or seven years ago, I had pneumonia. They ran all the normal tests, and they found a spot on my lung, and then it started growing.

We frequently find patients who have a small spot that's identified on a CT scan done for screening purposes. Nowadays, we have the benefit of a new technology called robotic navigational bronchoscopy, which is a technology that allows us to run a very small bronchoscope through the patient's airways out to the lesion with guidance, much like a GPS in a car. We can biopsy things that are as small as five millimeters across. Whereas 10 years ago, you would not have even been able to see that on a CT scan in the first place.

I find doctors and I trust them. Whatever they ask me to do, that's what I'm willing to do. If they had told me I'd had to go on to Memphis or Nashville or somewhere, I probably would have put it off. If the technology is here, the doctors are here and they can do it, I would say trust in them and just stay here and have it done. I would always start here first.

Maternal-fetal medicine encompasses a huge variety of different disciplines. We see patients at all stages of pregnancy and even pre-pregnancy to discuss different maternal complications or different things that are going on with baby in order to make sure that we have the best outcome for both mom and baby.

A high risk pregnancy would be anything that makes risks higher for mom or for baby. We see moms that have had a complicated history, such as chronic hypertension, diabetes, preexisting illnesses that mom has that increase her risk during pregnancy, or anything going on with a baby that increases baby's risk of having a complication, having to be delivered early, or having something going on.

You get more comprehensive care when you're referred to a maternal-fetal medicine specialist. We're able to kind of partner with the patient's OB, and get the best outcome possible.

When people come to Baptist Health Louisville, they're gonna get the highest level of care. We feel very strongly about that, from my wonderful manager to the providers to the sonographers. We're all on the same team, and you're gonna be treated like family when you come here.

We take pride in making sure that we go the extra mile to not only get to know our patients, but make sure that they're treated like I would want my sister to be treated or my mom to be treated, and that they get the best care that they can.

Vascular neurology involves diagnosis and treatment of several vascular diseases, which is mainly consists of treating conditions affecting the blood levels of the brain and spinal cord.

I primarily treat acute ischemic strokes and acute hemorrhagic strokes in patients. Whenever you have stroke signs and symptoms and come to Baptist Health Louisville ER, you are immediately assessed by, ER physician and a stroke neurologist. And we do [advanced] imaging, including using software with AI, where we are able to predict large strokes. If you have a blood clot, we are able to provide timely intervention, including doing mechanical thrombectomy and giving the clot-buster medication, which is TNK. I always tell my patients this mnemonic, BE FAST, where "B" stands for any sudden problems with balance, "E" stands for any visual problems. "F" stands for any facial drooping. "A" stands for any weakness in your arms or legs. "S" stands for any problem with speech, and "T" stands for time, because time is really important to providing interventions.

Baptist Health Louisville has received several awards. The important ones are the American Heart Association Stroke Gold Honor Roll, which is the highest award for providing timely intervention to patients with stroke.

Working at Baptist, I'm able to provide interventions in a timely manner and see good outcomes in our stroke patients, which is really important.

At Baptist Health Lexington, we've implemented a Cancer Risk Assessment program where patients that are scheduled for a mammogram will receive a questionnaire. In that questionnaire, it asks a series of personal health history and family history questions.

I have a family history of, breast cancer. My oldest sister had breast cancer and passed away at 47. I filled out a survey for my screening mammogram, and it came back positive that I should be screened for this specific gene.

If the lifetime risk for breast cancer is 20% or above, there is additional follow-up that may be warranted.

My test results came back positive as well. I see a cancer risk management doctor. I have a screening mammogram every six months and a breast MRI every six months.

Baptist Health Lexington is really at the forefront of risk assessment and proactively provides risk assessment to patients when they're scheduled for a mammogram. We can better identify high-risk patients and really make sure that patients are well informed about their risks so that they can make informed decisions about screening and prevention, with the overall goal of improved outcomes when it comes to cancer care.