CRMC Urges Community To “Catch-up On Your Check-Ups”

Cookeville Regional Medical Center has launched a new campaign: “Catch-up On Your Check-ups.”

The hospital hopes to emphasize the importance of getting regular check-ups, especially after having to forego them during the pandemic. Dr. Ernest Buchanan, family practice physician and CRMC board of trustees member, said that regular check-ups are an essential part of maintaining good health.

“Our great goal in medicine is to try to prevent illness and disease not treat it and the only way you can really do some of that is to get caught up early,” Buchanan said. “We like to find cancers when they’re stage one before they’re stage two or three or four, and the only way you can do is with check-ups and an individualized screening plan for each patient.”

Buchanan said that one of the biggest misconceptions of check-ups is that if you feel fine, there’s no need to visit a doctor. He said that while that may be true in some cases, getting check-ups while healthy helps doctors treat you more efficiently when something does come up.

Buchanan said that when it comes to continued apprehensions about entering a medical environment during the pandemic, it’s that medical providers aren’t taking lightly.

“Every medical provider is aware of and constantly trying to keep their patients safe from COVID and other infectious diseases,” Buchanan said. “All medical offices that I work with are still wearing masks, and still recommending and in most cases requiring wearing masks. Most people are at least having discussions about being vaccinated and it is safer than it was. In addition, there are fewer COVID cases now, finally, and while the numbers are low, we need to take care of all the other business that we’ve been neglecting. So I would say if the patient is worried about their safety, so are we and we’re going to do everything we can to protect them from infectious disease.”

Buchanan said that moving forward, it’s important especially for the kids, to catch up on regular vaccinations. He said that many adults are behind on their flu vaccinations, and that there are plenty of opportunities to catch up.