T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Belmont County resident Mary Hanlin sells Easter eggs filled with candy to raise money for Martins Ferry Senior Center’s Senior Association.

MARTINS FERRY — Primary care providers from both WVU Medicine and Trinity Health System were at the Martins Ferry Senior Center to inform residents of all ages about the services they offer.

The primary care providers were invited by the Martins Ferry Senior Center’s Senior Association.

“Since the closure of East Ohio Regional Hospital, we thought it was important to give the seniors an option for primary care, for cardiology, and all of their specialty services. So we want to come and talk to them today to give them those options,” said Dave Lucey, Trinity Health System’s Market Director for Primary Care. “A lot of the senior citizens don’t want to travel too far to get their health care services, so we wanted to make sure that they knew that they did have these options in the community.”

Martins Ferry Senior Center Coordinator Melissa Finney added that when East Ohio Regional Hospital shut down, it left a lot of people in a bad situation without a primary care provider or not being able to get their prescriptions filled, which made her nervous for the more vulnerable residents in her community.

Lucey added that he wanted to talk to the seniors about cardiac health and talk about the providers that Trinity has available.

“We’re just making sure that everybody takes care of their heart, and they know where to go and follow up on any needs that they have,” he said.

Kelly Hicks, a registered nurse at the WVU Medicine Connected Care Center, said that Finney asked her and Trinity to come and speak to the residents about finding a primary care doctor and services due to the closing of EORH and leaving this population without basic medical care. “Most of them walk to and from the hospital, so it’s been a burden to them. So I brought some information today called a PCP locator line that’s for WVU medicine, and we can help them find a new primary care physician and also have some resources,” she said. “It’s called the Find Help brochure, they can put in their zip code, and any resources in the area will pop up for that zip code, and they can go from there as far as what they need, whether it be transportation, assistance with housing, assistance with meals, and if they have any food insecurity, any kind of financial assistance that would be needed, as far as medications or paying for hospitalization.”

Hicks added that for the past three years she’s been going out into the community, primarily connecting with the senior population.

“We work a lot with the senior centers, I’ve been here before to talk with them and take their blood pressures. We do that all across the valley, and we provide information about specific disease diagnoses, especially for diabetics,” she said. “We have a huge amount of diabetes, congestive heart failure, chronic lung disease, and kidney disease in this valley. So we do a lot of disease-specific education as well because this population is so affected by the closing of the hospital.”

Hicks added that with the loss of EORH that WVU and Trinity are the only facilities in the Ohio Valley so she believes it’s crucial to get these seniors established with a primary care doctor.