By Rhys Baker

The Clay County Health Department has hired Clay County native Allie Martin, RN, BSN, as a public health nurse focusing on women’s health and family planning. Martin works in partnership with board-certified OB/GYN Dr. Mark Gros of The Women’s Health Group in Manhattan. Martin says The Clay County Health Department offers services to women of all ages, “Dr. Gros can perform well woman exams, breast exams, pap smears, anything that you would need regarding routine sexually transmitted infection or sexually transmitted disease testing. He can prescribe birth control to patients dependent upon the patient’s insurance or lack thereof or underinsured. Some of these things we keep in-house; others would have to be a prescription sent. But some of these things we can handle in-house are the IUDs, oral contraceptives, or the Depo shot.”

Screenings are essential for women’s health. Martin says CCHD is prepared if the results are abnormal: “There are things that we can do as far as referring out if there are abnormal findings that Dr. Gros can send orders for. If there is something that he finds on his breast exams, he can refer for mammograms.” The Early Detection Works program can help fund most follow-up tests to discover if results include the possibility of cancer or a pre-cancerous condition. The Clay County Health Department will work with patients to make follow-up appointments.