Transcript 2014 Premedical Rural Community Health Project Jason Garrett Schedule of Activities Wise Health Wagon June 30th – July 25th Shadowing with Dr.

2014 Premedical Rural Community
Health Project
Jason Garrett
Schedule of Activities
Wise Health Wagon
June 30th – July 25th
Shadowing with Dr. Almatari
July 2nd , July 9th and July 23rd
Wise RAM Clinic
July 14th to July 17th - set up
July 18th to July 20th - Clinic
Wise Health Wagon
In the weeks prior to RAM I helped
the Health Wagon prepare for the
Clinic.
Wise Health Wagon
I organized the professional volunteer
licensing information and inquired about
absent paperwork, called local business
owners about donations of water and diesel
fuel for use at the clinic, put up signs
advertising the clinic in Lebanon and
Abingdon VA, and contacted exhibitioners
planning on setting up booths/tents at
RAM to ensure the registration of their
volunteers.
Wise Health Wagon
As RAM drew nearer, the Health Wagon staff,
volunteers, and I began transporting
supplies from the Health Wagon to the
Fairgrounds, stocking portable cabinets
with medical supplies, and cleaning the
Health Wagon buses.
During this time I also called past Health
Wagon patients to inform those interested
of the availability of sigmoid tests at the
Health Wagon during RAM.
Shadowing Dr. Almatari
Dr. Almatari is a Doctor of Internal Medicine
at Pennington Family Health Center in
Pennington, VA.
Photo Earl Neikirk/Bristol Herald Courier
Shadowing Dr. Almatari
A significant majority of Dr. Almatari’s patients suffered from some
combination of hypertension, diabetes, and/or obesity. As such,
a major goal of his was to promote lifestyle changes that would
obviate the need for the various medications that many of these
patients were taking to manage their conditions. His concern
was rooted in the cost of these medications, especially for those
that were uninsured, and the possible side effects that they
could produce, which sometimes resulted in the patients having
to take even more medications.
For example, one patient who had been referred to Dr. Almatari
after suffering a stroke, was unaware that drinking a six pack of
soda a day could be a contributing factor to her poor overall
health. Upon being told this she managed in two weeks to cut
back to no more than two carbonated beverages a day and was
still working towards eliminating them entirely.
Shadowing Dr. Almatari
Eager to make sure I was capable of finding
information on my own, Dr. Almatari
would quiz me on various medical
information throughout the day. The
relevance of this information was made
clear to me when one of the patients seen a
week after I had been quizzed on the
cranial nerves happened to suffer from
third nerve palsy in her right eye.
Setting Up RAM
In the four days
prior to the clinic a
relatively small
group of volunteers,
myself included,
managed to turn an
empty fairground
into a surprisingly
respectable medical
facility. We set up
tents, tables, chairs,
and cots.
sett
Setting Up RAM
~
We turned barn stalls into exam rooms and a petting zoo
became the triage building. Anything that could ever touch a
patient or volunteer was cleaned.
Setting Up RAM
On Thursday the medical professionals began to
arrive to set up dental chairs and optometrist’s
chairs and the very first patients, who had been
selected by lottery to receive dentures, were
allowed into the fairgrounds.
RAM
Volunteers began arriving
at 4:30 AM each day to start
checking in. By 5:30
patients began trickling
out of the triage building to
be escorted to the dental,
vision, and medical
portions of the clinic.
RAM
It rained for the duration of the
entire clinic with several past
volunteers commenting on the
negative effect the weather
seemed to have on patient
turnout. The volunteers that
cleaned the dental equipment
stood on wooden pallets in an
effort to stay out of the puddles
that had formed beneath them.
RAM
The table where prescriptions were written for patients that had
gotten teeth extracted was also standing in ankle deep water.
Many patients endured the weather for multiple days in order to
have both their dental and vision needs met.
Left: Extractions area of
Dental Tent
RAM
The Lion’s Club was a significant benefactor to the RAM clinic.
They performed the vision screenings for patients before they got
their eye exams, provided donated glasses frames and on-site
fitting, cooked breakfast and lunch for the other volunteers,
brewed coffee for both volunteers and patients, and provided
donated clothing, shoes, and school supplies.
RAM
Additionally, many of the general volunteers not involved in the
above activities were also Lion’s Club members.
Left: Vision Screening Tent
and Trailers
Right: Glasses Tent
RAM
Left: Cancer Education
and Smoking Cessation
Tent
Right: Dental Triage Tent
and Missions of Mercy
Dental X-ray Trailer
RAM
Upper Left: University of
Virginia Medical Tents
Lower Left: Fillings/Cleanings
area of Dental Tent
Above: Vision services
registration and
Fillings/Cleanings waiting
area
RAM
Right: Dental Supply Tent
Left: From Left to Right Health Wagon Information
Tent, Lab Work Tent,
Pharmacy, red barn in
background was medical exam
building, Hearing Services Van
After RAM
On Sunday afternoon, as the last patients
were leaving, the remaining volunteers took
down all the tents and chairs, moved
leftover supplies into the supply buildings,
and began alphabetizing patient
documents. In the following week I helped
transport supplies back to the Health
Wagon, took down RAM signs, and
alphabetized and filed patient forms,
prescriptions, and lab work.
Conclusion
All in all this experience has left me with even more positive
feelings towards a career in medicine and the idea of practicing
in an underserved community. When the mother and child you
escorted the previous day walk by and the boy is wearing his
new pair of glasses and the mother’s mouth is full of bloody
gauze, having waited for her extraction until her son’s needs
were met, it makes you appreciate not only what you have but
also how important services like these are to those who need
them. You hardly even realize until you experience the feeling of
relief when you finally find the wheelchair bound 79 year old
woman’s daughter in a crowd of thousands how emotionally
invested you can become in the well being of someone who is,
for all intents, a stranger. As time goes by you begin to
understand why so many of these volunteers come from so far
away for a three day clinic in the mountains. Everyone there,
from Stan Brock and Teresa Gardner down to myself and the
other patient escorts, was there to help and to make a difference.