 "Photo: Coleman Morefield")
In light of rising health care costs, Texas Tech University Health Science Center medical students have created a free medical clinic in the heart of the Hub City to assist those who may not be able to afford the higher prices of health care.
“The Free Clinic is completely staffed on a volunteer basis,” said Brian Mahmood, a 24-year-old second-year medical student from El Paso and one of the founding members of he Free Clinic. “We have medical students in their first, second and third year under the guidance of volunteering physicians as well as very important members that volunteer their time to run the registration desk at the front of the clinic.”
The HSC, Lubbock IMPACT and Lubbock Aid Ambulance work in tandem in The Family Church building on the corner of 34th Street and Boston Avenue to provide the Free Clinic from 6 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Wednesdays.
“We’re taking the first six months as kind of a trial run,” said Revathi Ravi, a 23-year-old second-year medical student and co-founder of the Free Clinic. “We took mainly medical student volunteers for the first part, but we hope to bring in nursing students in the future as well.”
When the clinic first started, Mahmood said he was doing the scheduling with only a pen and a planner.
“Before the first week was over, the scheduling of medical students, physicians and various other volunteers was completely out of hand,” he said. “I joined up with the HSC IT Department and the student services department to help me out. They created an online sign-up system that made things a lot easier and more efficient. Within the first week of the creation of the system, we were full for the rest of the semester.”
Some of the top physicians also have volunteered their time to the clinic.
“The patients are getting to see some of the top people in the medical field,” Mahmood said. “Like Leigh Ann Jenkins, the chief of cardiology, has come in one more than one occasion.”
Patients who are uninsured and cannot afford medication that visit the Free Clinic also are entitled to the program implemented that offers most medications for free through the Wal-Mart pharmacy on Fourth Street and Avenue Q, if not in stock already at the Free Clinic. Mahmood said the Free Clinic is able to operate through donations of various groups and organizations.
“It’s amazing how professors, even early on, would come up to us and say, ‘Here’s a couple of bottles of aspirin,’” he said. “Those couple of bottles really go a long way when most people come in here and truly can’t afford aspirin.”
After the patient receives the medical care they need, they are able to go into a resource counselor’s office that assists in seeing if the patient is qualified for some sort of Medicaid.
“The reason most people around here do not have some sort of government assistance is because they may not even know if they are eligible,” said Nyssa Martinez, an on-site resource counselor. “It takes about five minutes to see if they are eligible. We then assist them in filling out the paper work and putting them on the right track.”
Almost one-fourth of Lubbock’s population is uninsured, Mahmood said.
“There is so much more taught here than diagnosing people,” Ravi said. “It is an amazing thing to learn early on how to offer health care and not health diagnosing.”
Other members of the team include Carlos Ortiz and Natalie Frieh, both second-year medical students.
The medical student team is under the direction of Dr. Kelly Bennett as medical director and Ryan Bullard as clinic director.
“We do this for the person next to us, our neighbors and fellow citizens that may not be able to afford health care,” Ravi said. “They need proper health care just like I do. Being able to help people reminds us weekly why we entered into the medical field.”
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