Understanding Heart Health: protect yourself from Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease

The village in Hartford creates access to health care for the community. This is a new innovative technology, OnMed's Care Station, and it provides care without a cost to the patient. Primary care is hard to access in Hartford and there are no urgent care centers. Between costly bills and actual offices, getting to the doctor can be a real problem for residents in Hartford. That's where the new OnMed Care Station comes in. We bring quality affordable health care service into underserved communities. The technology part can be a bit of a challenge. The hardest thing is introducing something new to the community. Technology is intimidating. But Debra Hayes of Hartford HealthCare says this center is easy to use and very thorough. The good thing about the station is it's equipped with high-tech diagnostic tools which enable the provider to actually conduct an assessment on the patient as if they were right there in the room with them. We got a first-hand look at how it works. You walk into the station and once your session starts, the glass frosts over for privacy. Hi, how are you? There is a scale for you to step on to get your weight, an arm cuff for your blood pressure, and a heat camera for body temperature. Plus, from the ceiling drops down another camera and a stethoscope for care as if the provider was in the room. Plus, no need to worry about the germs. Someone else left behind. Spray, air filtration, and UV lights are there to keep this station cleaner than most health care settings. If a Kleenex is dropped or something to that effect, the station can't clean that remotely. So then the station will lock and they'll have someone come and clean it out manually. So whether you have a cold, a rash, respiratory infections, or even COVID, you can come in and be out in about 15 to 20 minutes. When you take a look at the health disparities of cities like Hartford, you start to see that the age mortality, the life expectancy, all of that is much lower than surrounding communities. When problems are small and manageable is when Hector Glynn of the village hopes people come in. Hopefully, if people know more about it and they aren't too intimidated about the technology, we'll be able to start to change the curve of those health disparities and some of that life disparities. With flu, COVID and cold season right around the corner, the station is open from 8 AM to 730 Monday through Friday. Friday it does close at 5, making it easy for you to get care. In Hartford, Alexa Farrell, Fox 61, Connecticut's news station.