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Mercy Urgent Care

Asheville, Brevard, Burnsville, Columbus, Waynesville & Weaverville NC

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Keely Knopp

Namaste Productive

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stretches you can do at your desk

From the February 2021 Mercy Occupational Medicine eNewsletter

Let’s face it, we’re all spending lots more time at our desks these days. Sitting at a desk for 8+ hours per day can cause strains of the neck, shoulders and lower back. However, incorporating yoga style stretches can help relieve tension and stress from all that sitting. Here are some yoga style poses to help you release those stresses and minimize strains.

  • Stand up: Standing desks are all the rage for a reason! Not only does your body work slightly harder to stand versus sitting, but it will also keep your shoulders upright, hips looser and core more engaged.
  • Neck rolls: Start with your head at neutral and tip your head to the right or left before circling backward and then returning to neutral. This dynamic movement relaxes and stretches your neck muscles and your cervical spine!
  • Personal massage: You can deepen this stretch by spending a bit of extra time with your head tipped to the right or left. Use your fingers to gently press down (like you’re playing the piano) on your neck.
  • Seated or standing side bend: You can do this in your chair or on your feet! Reach your hands up overhead and grab your left wrist with your right hand and bend to your right, feeling the stretch through the left side of your body. Come back to neutral, switch your hands and bend to your left. Remember to keep your shoulders square. The more you fill your lungs, the better the stretch you’ll feel through your side.
  • Wrist and forearm stretch: Standing up, place both your hands on your desk with your fingertips pointing toward your body and your palms down. Your elbow pits should be pointed away from you. If you want to intensify the stretch, lean backward while keeping your palms flat on the desk.
  • Seated spinal twist: With your hips square in front of you, twist your torso to the left and right looking over your shoulder. You can grab onto your chair for some added pressure.
  • Cat/cow: Throw it back to yoga class! Place your palms face down on the table in front of you. Take a deep breath in as you pull your shoulders down and back, pressing your chest forward between your shoulders. As you breathe out, roll your shoulders forward and round through your upper back.
  • Seated figure 4: Cross your right leg over your left quad and place your ankle just above your knee. Keep your back flat and your shoulders strong as you lean forward, bringing your chest as close to your legs as possible. Come up to neutral and switch sides.
  • Standing pigeon: Another yoga favorite, you can use your desk to get into a standing pigeon pose! Bring one leg up to the desk and make sure your shin is parallel to the front of your desk. Lean forward as much as needed to feel the stretch through your hip. You may feel this in your glute as well and/or the hip flexor of your posted leg.
  • Standing or seated forward fold: This one can be done sitting in your chair or from a standing position. With your feet planted on the floor, bend forward as far as you can, reaching for your toes.
  • IT band stretch (crossing feet): From a standing position, cross one leg over the other and plant it back on the floor. Bend forward the same way you did in the standing forward fold. You should feel this through the outside of your crossed leg.
  • Ankles ABCs or point and flex: While seated, keep your ankles moving by spelling words, writing your ABCs or pointing and flexing your toes!

120 Years of Mercy in the Mountains

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Asheville in 1900 was still transition from a rough-and-tumble mountain town to the cosmopolitan place it became. G. W. Vanderbilt’s new place was only five years old, and most of the ordinary citizenry were still tied to the original mountain economy—farming, timbering, trading and so forth. Before anyone had heard—or even conceived of—the word “tourism,” Ashevilleans were still fairly suspicious of outsiders and skeptical of their intentions.

Especially so now that the area was gaining a reputation as a place to seek relief and recovery from tuberculosis, a deadly unfriendly contagious disease. Little wonder that longtime residents felt uneasy about trainloads of sick folks and their caregivers disembarking at Depot street.

But public concern notwithstanding, the trains kept on coming in, and the brand-new sanatoriums, retreats, spas, infirmaries and resorts were waiting an eager to receive the well-heeled sufferers.

Into this scene, in November of that year, stepped three nuns from the Religious Sisters of Mercy in Dublin. Their plan was to open a school, but they quickly determined that the greater need was to join in the fight against tuberculosis. But unlike Grove and the others whose patients were almost exclusively upper class, the Sisters would administer to anyone who needed care, regardless of social or economic standing. To that end, they established a clinic which quickly grew to become Saint Joseph’s hospital.

And through the intervening twelve decades have transformed the Sisters’ small outpost into a leading provider of health care for our region, employing over 100 people in eight state-of-the-art facilities, the commitment, the mission that brought that tiny circle of intrepid women to the mountains has not changed at all. Today 100 years later, they are still treating all of us—without regard to circumstance, without concern for profit—with compassion, skill, humility and generosity.

They are still gifting all of us with mercy.

Global Handwashing Day

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One of the best ways to safeguard against sickness is to wash your hands. With the double threat of COVID-19 and the flu, practicing this habit is now even more important. In celebration of Global Handwashing Day, Mercy Urgent Care is sharing these tips and tricks from the Centers from Disease Control and Prevention to help you and your family stay germ free this fall.

Washing your hands is easy, and it’s one of the most effective ways to prevent the spread of germs. Clean hands can stop germs from spreading from one person to another and throughout an entire community—from your home and workplace to childcare facilities and hospitals. It’s important to remember to wash your hands throughout the day, not just before eating and after using the bathroom. Follow these five steps every time.

  1. Wet your hands with clean, running water (warm or cold), turn off the tap, and apply soap.
  2. Lather your hands by rubbing them together with the soap. Lather the backs of your hands, between your fingers, and under your nails.
  3. Scrub your hands for at least 20 seconds. Need a timer? Hum the “Happy Birthday” song from beginning to end twice.
  4. Rinse your hands well under clean, running water.
  5. Dry your hands using a clean towel or air dry them.

Washing hands with soap and water is the best way to get rid of germs in most situations. If soap and water are not readily available, you can use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer that contains at least 60% alcohol. You can tell if the sanitizer contains at least 60% alcohol by looking at the product label. Sanitizers can quickly reduce the number of germs on hands in many situations. However,

  • Sanitizers do not get rid of all types of germs.
  • Hand sanitizers may not be as effective when hands are visibly dirty or greasy.
  • Hand sanitizers might not remove harmful chemicals from hands like pesticides and heavy metals.

Personal hygiene begins and ends with our hands. And, while washing your hands is important, vaccines are your body’s best defense against the flu. Flu shots are available at all eight Mercy Urgent Care locations.

Family Nurse Practitioner Carol Hoban retires after 35 years of service

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Marina Driggers and Carol Hoban
Marina Driggers and Carol Hoban

After 35 years of providing health care to Transylvania County, Family Nurse Practitioner Carol Hoban is retiring from Brevard’s Frances Warde Family Health, a practice the family nurse practitioner headed for many years. Frances Warde Family Health will close on Sept. 30 when Hoban retires.

More than 36 years ago, Frances Warde Family Health opened to provide health care for people living in rural Rosman. The facility was named for Frances Warde, the first Sister of Mercy to come to the United States.

“Carol Hoban has been a tremendous asset to Transylvania County’s medically underserved population, and she will be greatly missed by all her patients and everyone at Mercy Urgent Care,” said Mercy’s Medical Director Elizabeth McCarty, M.D.

Originally from New Jersey, Hoban attended nursing school and then received a master’s degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 1972. While working in an administrative position, she encouraged others to seek out jobs that served unfilled needs within their community. When it came time for her to find another job, she decided to practice what she preached — reaching out to Dr. Gretchen Hermanny, who had just opened a small health care facility in rural North Carolina.

“I discovered they were in need of a nurse for Frances Warde Health Service, which was just opening, and thought I’d give North Carolina a try,” Hoban said. “Been more than 30 years, and I’m still just trying it out, as I never signed a contract!”

In 2011, Mercy Urgent Care acquired what is now known as Frances Warde Family Health and relocated the facility to Brevard. With more primary care options sprouting up in the Rosman area, the original goal to fill an unmet need for health care was complete. When Dr. Hermanny retired that same year, Hoban took over care for her patients at the relocated practice.

“For more than 30 years, Carol tirelessly served the needs of those in Transylvania County, many of whom otherwise might have gone without food and clothing, as well as health care,” said Tim Johnston, CEO of Mercy Urgent Care.

While the Frances Warde Family Health center is closing alongside Hoban’s retirement, Mercy Urgent Care Brevard will remain open and ready to assist patients in its streamlined facility, which underwent a renovation and expansion in April 2019

Mercy Urgent Care Receives Sky High Growth Award

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Mercy Urgent Care is honored to be an Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce 2020 Sky High Growth Award winner. President & Chief Executive Officer Tim Johnston, Chief Administrative Officer Rachel Sosssoman, and Executive Assistant Sharon Owen accepted the award on behalf of Mercy Urgent Care at a special drive-thru reception at Sierra Nevada on July 21.

The 2020 Sky High Growth Award Winners were presented to companies and organizations within the Asheville Area who overcame challenges, reached beyond past successes, and took their businesses to the next level. Sky High winners were recognized for creating jobs and giving back the the community.

Congratulations to our fellow winners: Apex Braincenter, Asheville Arborists, Asheville Art Museum, Avadim Health, Inc., Big Frog Custom T-shirts & More, Blue Ridge Pharmacy, Carolina Furniture Concepts, Carolina Hemp Company, Carolina Mornings, East Fork Pottery, Great Asheville Regional Asheville, Harmony at Reynolds Mountain, Hi-Wire Brewing, IFB Solutions, Kudzu, Mosaix Group, Physio Physical Therapy and Wellness, Solfarm Solar, Sona Pharmacy + Clinic, Storm Guard of Appalachia, Thermo Fisher Scientific, TurnKey Vacation Rentals, Wicked Weed and Zoe Dental.