2014 Premedical Rural Community Health Project

Jason Garrett

Schedule of Activities

Wise Health WagonJune 30th – July 25th

Shadowing with Dr. AlmatariJuly 2nd , July 9th and July 23rd

Wise RAM ClinicJuly 14th to July 17th - set upJuly 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 WagonI 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 WagonAs 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

sett

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.

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 RAMOn 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.

RAMIt 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

RAMLeft: 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 RAMOn 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.

ConclusionAll 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.