From the Heart: What you need to know about flu season 2020

Wednesday, September 30, 2020 | Vol. 1, No. 8

Are you ready for some football?

How about the flu?

The good news: Football season is back!

The bad news: So is flu season – and medical experts are expecting it to complicate this already beyond-complicated 2020.

All together now: Sigh.

That being said, we’re not really the gloom-and-doom type here at St. Tammany Health System. Even if we were, we wouldn’t have time to dwell on negative emotions. There’s too much else going on around here.

Below, find a sampling of stories about what’s keeping us busy lately, from our Parenting Center’s annual Monster Mash Halloween shindig to the latest peek at the construction being done on our new patient tower.

Enjoy the read – and enjoy the football games.

But most of all, go get your flu shot.

Community Checkup with Joan Coffman

While Louisiana has made strides in its public health rankings, there’s still work to be done, and St. Tammany Health System is teaming up with our partners at Ochsner Health and others in the community to do it, STHS President and CEO Joan Coffman says in her latest Community Checkup video.

Shoo, flu

Winter is coming – which means flu season is coming, too. And if you’re wondering whether you should bother getting your flu shot, let Dr. Patrick Torcson, the chief medical officer at St. Tammany Health System, remove any doubt:

“Everybody needs to get a flu shot this year,” Torcson said recently. “There should be no deliberation: ‘Am I in a high-risk group? Am I not?’ Every citizen should get a flu shot.”

Calling all goblins …

Pandemic or not, the 32nd Monster Mash is a go, and it can be expected to feature all the costumes, candy and crafts locals have come to expect from the annual family-friendly Halloween party – although, in deference to COVID-19, this year’s event will be a touch different than in years past.

Back-to-school blues?

Between homework, tests and those early mornings – to say nothing of COVID-19 – the return to school can be a stressful time for parents and children. But there are strategies to help make things a little easier for your child and for yourself, The Parenting Center’s Alexis Dill writes in her latest column.

Walk this way …

It’s no secret that exercise is a necessary part of being healthy. What may come as a surprise is that you don’t need to go to the gym every day, run for miles on end or lift an assortment of weights to attain good health, STHS registered dietician Julie Fortenberry writes.

A sneak peek

Building a four-story structure while you’re running a hospital is never exactly easy. Doing it during a pandemic only complicates things. Despite it all, work on STHS’s new patient wing continues apace. We recently got a peek inside – and we’ve got the photos to prove it.

See the photos

St. Tammany Health System