Students gain skills & understanding while serving uninsured patients under supervision of faculty doctors

Newswise ANN ARBOR, Mich. Uninsured residents of rural Livingston County, Mich. and surrounding areas who need health care have a new option to turn to every Saturday afternoon: a free medical clinic run entirely by University of Michigan Medical School students.

The students, and U-M faculty physicians, volunteer their time to provide free primary care each week at a storefront clinic in Pinckney.

The U-M Student Run Free Clinic, as it is called, uses the same location as the Faith Medical Clinic, a free-care site for patients without insurance that offers appointments on Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings. On the afternoon of Oct. 6, the team will hold an Open House to welcome the community.

For the U-M students, the free clinic is not just a chance to give back to the community its also a chance to get to learn more about opportunities to care for the uninsured and to know the administrative and business side of medicine.

Students plan for and handle all the details and challenges of running the clinic, and deal with everything from appointment scheduling and interviewing new arrivals, to entering information into a computerized medical record system. The U-M Medical School Deans office is providing funding, as is Michigan Central Student Government.

Already in the clinics pilot period, the students and their faculty supervisors have seen patients with everything from simple ailments to chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes and shoulder joint issues.

The students handle all aspects of the visit except for those that require a licensed physician -- a role filled by a faculty physician from the Medical School. Patients who need more advanced care receive a referral and help in finding low-cost or free options, including through the U-M Health Systems own charity care program.

The U-M Student Run Free Clinic gives our students a real sense of all the moving parts that must be aligned to create a well-run clinic, the issues facing the uninsured and the importance of caring for all in our communities, says Hari Conjeevaram, M.D., M.Sc., an associate professor of internal medicine who is the lead faculty advisor to the clinic team and medical director of the clinic. Although health care reform should give more uninsured Americans access to care over the next few years, services like the Faith Clinic and our student-run clinic provide a vital safety net for non-emergency and preventive care.

The experience of running the clinic and taking patients vital signs and medical histories is especially important for the first- and second-year medical students, whose classroom studies dont yet bring them into contact with patients.

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Free Weekly Clinic Run by Medical Students Helps Patients Get Essential Care