Paint the Town Pink run breast cancer efforts highlight Baptist Health Corbins success in serving community

December 18, 2018

To illustrate the work Baptist Health Corbin physicians, nurses and staff do to improve the health of their communities, the hospital has posted a video focusing on the annual Paint the Town Pink Glow Run that raises funds to support breast cancer patients, and on survivors whose lives have been changed.

To illustrate the work Baptist Health Corbin physicians, nurses and staff do to improve the health of their communities, the hospital has posted a video focusing on the annual Paint the Town Pink Glow Run that raises funds to support breast cancer patients, and on survivors whose lives have been changed.

Among those featured in the video is Susan Mitchell, photographer and author of Livingston, Kentucky, a breast cancer survivor who sought the help of Baptist Health Corbin’s nurse navigator, Joyce Brown, in dealing with her condition. Once, when Mitchell felt very ill, she called Brown on her cell phone. “She just talked to me as long as I needed her to talk to me,” Mitchell said. “I felt better knowing somebody was here to help me and to help my family.”

Brown, herself a breast cancer survivor, said she understands her patients’ struggles with cancer. “They know I know what they’re going through,” she said. “(My cancer journey) helps me understand these ladies.”

Color images taken from each video now grace the rotunda of Baptist Health’s headquarters building in Louisville, as daily reminders of the system’s mission to demonstrate the love of Christ and providing and coordinating care to improve the health of communities served.

“Improving the health of the communities that we serve could be represented in a pie chart or a bar graph,” said Anthony Powers, Baptist Health Corbin president.  “But we’d prefer to measure our success in terms of people and the lives we’ve changed – people like Susan Mitchell and Keysha Hammons.”

Donna Mahan, Baptist Health Corbin behavioral health specialist, and Lisa Gomez, the hospital’s Cancer Center director, are also in the video.

Each Baptist Health hospital is represented in the video series and photo gallery, each highlighting a wellness program, and focusing on those who benefitted from those programs. Programs featured include heart health, diabetes prevention, health screenings, breast cancer awareness, physical fitness for students, smoking cessation and opioid education.

“These photos, and the videos, are a vivid reminder for us – especially those of us at the System Services Center headquarters – of the wonderful work Baptist Health is doing in our communities,” Baptist Health CEO Gerard Colman said to leaders and staff who attended the unveiling ceremony. “We hope that this exhibit will inspire you, and that you will share these images with vendors and visitors to illustrate the meaning of our mission.”

The gallery and video project is tied to the triennial Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) report recently created for each Baptist Health hospital. The reports, written in conjunction with community partners, pinpoint each area’s top health concerns and outline a roadmap to improvement. The reports are available at BaptistHealth.com/community-health.

Baptist Health Corbin’s CHNA report for the counties of Knox, Laurel, Whitley, Clay, Harlan and McCreary identifies top health concerns as obesity, cancer, heart disease, patient transportation and mental health and substance abuse.

Baptist Health’s annual community report also zeroes in on the CHNA reports and gallery subjects.
When available, copies of that report will also be posted at BaptistHealth.com/community-health.