Henry County Health Center has received the American Heart Association’s Get With The Guidelines^® – Stroke Rural Recognition Bronze award for efforts to optimize stroke care and eliminate rural health care outcome disparities.

People who live in rural communities live an average of three years fewer than urban counterparts and have a 40% higher likelihood of developing heart disease and face a 30% increased risk for stroke mortality — a gap that has grown over the past two decades. Henry County Health Center is committed to changing that.

The American Heart Association, the world’s leading nonprofit organization focused on heart and brain health for all, recognizes the importance of health care services provided to people living in rural areas by rural hospitals that play a vital role in initiation of timely evidence-based care. For that reason, all rural hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines – Stroke are eligible to receive award recognition based on a unique methodology focused on early acute stroke performance metrics.

“We are proud that our team at Henry County Health Center is being recognized for the important work we do every day to improve the lives of people in Henry County who are affected by stroke, giving them the best possible chance of recovery and survival,” said Cindy Cotton, HCHC Vice President of Patient Care Services. “As a hospital in a rural community, we deal with characteristics, such as extended interfacility transportation times, and limited staffing resources. We’ve made it a goal to make sure those hurdles do not affect the standard of care our stoke patients receive. Rural communities deserve high quality stroke care. I’m proud of our team for their commitment to stroke care excellence and this achievement.”

The award recognizes hospitals for their efforts toward acute stroke care excellence demonstrated by composite score compliance to guideline-directed care for intravenous thrombolytic therapy, timely hospital inter-facility transfer, dysphagia screening, symptom timeline and deficit assessment documentation, emergency medical services communication, brain imaging and stroke expert consultation.

“Patients and health care professionals in rural areas face unique health care challenges and opportunities,” said Karen E. Joynt Maddox, M.D., MPH, volunteer expert for the American Heart Association, co-author on “Call to Action: Rural Health: A Presidential Advisory From the American Heart Association and American Stroke Association” and co-director of the Center for Health Economics and Policy at the Institute for Public Health at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. “Henry County Health Center has furthered this important work to improve care for all Americans, regardless of where they live.”

Following heavy rainfall throughout central and southeast Iowa, the DNR encourages Iowans to stay out of streams until the waters recede. Heavy rain has inundated several areas and led to multiple wastewater discharges.

The DNR Field Offices in Des Moines and Washington were notified Wednesday and Thursday of wastewater bypasses in several counties in central and southeast Iowa. Currently, the department is unaware of impacts to municipal drinking water supplies or fish kills. DNR staff will continue to monitor these situations and assist impacted communities.

In Henry County, several inches fell in a short amount of time impacting the City of Mount Pleasant. The bypass is entering Saunders Branch with a discharge of approximately 500 gallons per minute from a lift station. Saunders Branch discharges into Big Creek to the south of town before the confluence with the Skunk River.

The city has two pumps in the area to attempt to reduce the amount of bypassed water entering Saunders Branch. Water samples are being collected in the area of the wastewater bypass. This is an ongoing discharge and is expected to last a couple days according to city staff. It is recommended the public avoids the impacted stretches of water.

Heavy rainfall can overload wastewater collection systems and underground sewer pipes carrying sewage to a treatment plant. With sewage pipes overwhelmed, excess water has nowhere to go and can back up into basements through floor drains. Bypassing can lower the water level and alleviate pressure in the collection system, keeping sewage from backing up into basements, which could present health risks.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird issued a warning to Iowans about devastating lottery scams.

Last year, Americans lost nearly $340 million to lottery scams. Lottery scams occur when con artists tell victims that they have won a prize and then convince the victims that they have to make payments to receive it.

“Scammers are professional manipulators and thieves,” said Attorney General Bird. “They take advantage of Iowans’ hopes and dreams before stealing from them. And they steal not just money, but confidence, joy, trust, and livelihood. I urge Iowans to be vigilant and to remember that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if you have to pay for your prize, it is a scam.”

One example is an Iowa woman who received a phone call from an unknown number. The caller told her she hit the jackpot and had won $5.5 million, a brand new 2023 Mercedes Benz, plus payments of $5,000 a week for a lifetime. Over the course of the day, the scammer called the woman eight times, checking in to see how she was feeling. After building a trusting relationship with this woman, the scammer told her that she needed to pay a $2,000 fee to receive her prize. She withdrew from her investments, deposited the check at the instructed bank, and was told, if asked about the money, to say that it was for her kids. After the first payment, she was told to send more money. At that point, she stopped and sought help from local law enforcement.

How scammers trick you:

• Scammers call, text, email, or mail to notify you that you won the lottery, a sweepstakes, or a prize.
• Scammers demand upfront payments to collect your winnings or pay related taxes/fees.
• Scammers send emails or texts requesting personal/financial information for you to claim lottery wins or prizes.
• Scammers pose as lottery officials or pretend to be from well-known companies that run sweepstakes to sell fake tickets or entries, demand money, or get your personal/financial details.

How to protect yourself from lottery scams:

If you have to pay for your prize, it’s a scam. Hang up or do not respond to any unsolicited call or message. Never provide personal or financial information over the phone or email to someone unknown for alleged lottery or prize winnings. Report suspicious activity to the Iowa Attorney General’s Office or local law enforcement.

If you or someone you know has been targeted by a lottery scam, contact the Iowa Attorney General’s office at 888-777-4590 or file a complaint online: https://www.iowaattorneygeneral.gov/for-consumers/file-a-consumer-complaint.