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Healthcare Umbrella

By Michelle Fortune, St. Luke’s Hospital CEO

Last week, as I was making travel plans for a January marathon that I’ve been training for, I saw an ad from Six Flags promoting their Heroes Week. The park offers an entire week for all military, police, firefighters, nurses, CNAs and EMS personnel to have free admission when they show their work badge at the entrance gate. Simultaneously, Six Flags will collect non-perishable products to create care packages for enlisted men and women. Any park visitor who contributes to this cause receives an admission discount. It was heartwarming to see this business intentionally spotlighting the heroes who are on the front lines serving others.

I have settled into a similar pattern with this column, a regular update to keep our community aware of what is happening at our local hospital and how we continue to protect, like an umbrella, you and your family from challenges that threaten your health. As these weekly columns continue, I’d like to begin spotlighting the heroes among our ranks at St. Luke’s. I’ll be introducing you to the men and women who serve by protecting us. I invite you to get to know them a bit more! Some are fairly new to our team and others have been with us long term. All are heroes in their own right, and I hope you enjoy getting to know them.

The other new addition to our Healthcare Umbrella column will be a rotation of your health-related questions with answers provided by local healthcare practitioners. Topics will include everything from how to best stretch before your 3-mile walk to the latest treatments for breast cancer. I invite you to send your questions directly to me at Michelle.Fortune@slhnc.org, and I will share them with local providers. Not only will this offer answers to your healthcare concerns, but also highlight the expertise we have right here in our own community.

In conclusion, I want to share with you that St. Luke’s has a new addition to our team who happens to be our first featured healthcare hero, Dr. Emily Rogers Delmas. A talented general surgeon, Dr. Delmas is a native of Polk County. She trained at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine and completed a surgical critical care fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. She will be working with Dr. Gerhardt Winkel, our full-time general surgeon, to ensure that you have local 24/7 general coverage, 365 days a year.

Prior to relocating back to her hometown, Dr. Delmas worked at a level 1 trauma center in Georgia for the past five years and served as an adjunct clinical professor for Augusta University at the Medical College of Georgia. We are extremely excited to have her join our team to further strengthen and expand our general surgery coverage right here, close to home.

As we introduce you to additional healthcare heroes at St. Luke’s and answer your health-related questions, please be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn or visit our website at SaintLukesHospital.com. We are all dedicated to serving you and providing exceptional care, close to home!

Contact Michelle Fortune or send your healthcare questions to Michelle.Fortune@slhnc.org.

#StLukesNCStrong