Sat, Nov 21 2009
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Pittsburg free clinic seeking donors “It’s a good way for students to learn compassion, and to learn that if you’re not comfortable with the human element, now is the time to find out before med school,” she said.
“Many patients who come in are living well below the poverty line and don’t have insurance. Even to get to the clinic to get health care, there are a lot of barriers they have to overcome. Transportation. Maybe they’re working and can’t afford to take time off. Maybe they’re grandparents who are primary caretakers of their grandchildren and can’t find child care.” One patient comes in regularly with chronic conditions, Walters said. That patient was laid off in the past couple of years, lost her insurance and income, and now lives in greatly reduced circumstances. “She has a chronic condition that needs to be managed, and the Free Clinic is her only source of care,” Walters said. “What’s maybe most important to her is that when she comes in, she just wants to be acknowledged as a person, that someone listens. Five years ago, she was an upstanding member of the community, owned her own home, and all of a sudden no one sees her that way anymore.” In the beginning The clinic was the brainchild of Dr. Kathleen Sandess, who saw a need for helping people through financial hardships or periods of having no insurance. She realized a real resource in the PSU pre-med students who were looking for experience, and she approached the biology department. “Now we are able to have an experience you typically wouldn’t get until your third or fourth year of med school,” Watson said. Along with Sandess, PSU Student Health Center Director Donald Holsinger, and Drs. David Huerter, Boban Mathew, John Taylor and Ron Seglie have long volunteered their time and expertise on a rotating schedule. Kaye Quick, a nurse practitioner, and Vicki Webber, a physician assistant, recently joined the clinic’s volunteer roster. The students say the clinic would not be possible without the support of Mag Lab, 200 E. Centennial St., which processes lab work at no charge, and The Medicine Shoppe, 2409 N. Broadway, which offers a $3 co-pay for medicine not in the clinic’s usual inventory. Looking ahead Club members are hoping that a sense of community involvement soon translates into private donations to keep the clinic afloat. 
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