When it first opened in 1986, it was a screened-off corner of the dining room at the Salvation Army on Main Street where UK medical students – under the supervision of UK doctors and faculty members – provided free medical services to the low-income and homeless population of Lexington.
Nearly 40 years later, the UK Salvation Army Clinic (SAC) is one of the country’s oldest continuously operated, student-run free clinics. The clinic now occupies 500 square feet of space – about the size of a small one-bedroom apartment – and offers drop-in medical care for underserved and underinsured people two evenings a week, plus lab and pharmacy services, nutrition counseling, and a smoking cessation group.
Specialty care clinics such as pediatrics, dermatology and ophthalmology are offered once a month, in addition to the main clinic on Tuesday and Thursday evenings.
UK medical students manage the clinic, from operations and staffing to purchasing supplies and equipment. About 30 medical students currently work there in various roles this year. When the clinic is open, at least one resident or attending physician is always present to oversee the patient care, diagnose and create treatment plans, and write prescriptions.
Between 5:30 and 9 p.m. on any given night, the main clinic can see up to eight patients. Most of the patients are residents of the Salvation Army, but the clinic is open to any person in need.
Nicole Marker is a second-year medical student and co-manager of the clinic. She said the people who come to the clinic truly rely on it and have few other options for medical care. Marker and the students, for their part, rely on UK providers and faculty.
There is a group of six to 10 UK physicians that Marker calls “the regulars” who come in once or twice a month. Marker would like to increase that number if possible and recruit more doctors who would volunteer occasionally at the clinic.
“We need physicians,” she said. “If we don't have someone scheduled or someone's not available, we can't have the clinic.”
Actually, the student staff would welcome regular or occasional volunteers in many healthcare roles and fields.
“If you work at UK HealthCare and want to help us in whatever way to provide care to our patients, we would love to have you,” she said.
Meaghan Schaeffner, MD, is director of service learning for the College of Medicine and on the faculty in Internal Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases. She spends many evenings at the clinic.
“Dr. Schaeffner is there (for the clinic) at least once a week,” said Marker. “She comes there on days that we don't run the clinic, too. She has made it awesome, and we've all worked really well with her. I think it just really shows that she cares a lot.”
Marker began volunteering at the clinic as an undergrad in pre-med, and she appreciated the opportunity to gain some practical experience and responsibilities at that stage. But it also provided her with a real-life testing grounds to clarify and confirm her motivations for choosing a career in medicine.
“It's extremely important to me to be able to help people,” she said. “I think health care is a human right. And I think that everybody needs it and deserves it, no matter who you are or what state you're in.”
Hunter Akers is co-manager of the clinic this year. He learned about SAC in his first year of medical school at UK and experienced it firsthand through one of his courses. Though Aker had worked as an emergency medicine scrub and anesthesiology tech as an undergraduate at University of Pikeville, he said it was volunteering at the clinic that gave him a sense of accomplishment and pride about his vocation.
“Whenever I was at the clinic, I was just always surprised at how simple it was to participate in a person’s care,” said Akers. “And to actually make a direct impact on a patient's life.”
He valued his work at the clinic so much last year that he wanted to be more involved and get more experience – even taking on a leadership role.
“Working with real patients, it’s a whole new thing,” Akers said. “And the clinic is the best way, I think, for us students to get experience with real patients before we go on the 3rd and 4th year.”
Schaeffer, who agrees with Akers about the value of real hands-on patient care experience, said the UKSAC is “truly a student-run clinic.”
“The students are getting practice at triaging patients, taking their vitals, doing the interview,” she said. “And then they call me in or another attending or resident, and we just supervise and make sure that medications are dispensed properly and for appropriate things.”
The clinic is able to buy medications at a discount from UK and dispense them on the spot.
“We can dispense up to two weeks [of medication] at a time for our patients to bridge the gap for them while they're waiting to get into their regular primary care or waiting to get their Kentucky insurance card,” said Schaeffner.
To buy those medications and everything else needed to keep the clinic open, the SAC relies heavily on donations. They had their annual Casino Night fundraiser in October and recently concluded a big donation drive. The College of Medicine website has more information about the clinic and always features a link to donate.
But money isn’t all they need.
“The biggest thing we need is volunteers, especially physicians and social workers,” said Marker.
She said she hopes providers at UK HealthCare will read this article and be inspired to volunteer.
“It doesn't have to be every week! But even if it is – your time commitment would be about three-to-four hours, max,” Marker said. “If anyone is interested, even if it's once every two months, that is beneficial. The patients are so grateful.”
This story originally appeared on The Loop
Photos below:
- Medical students preparing for clinic: L to R Annie Smock (with phone), Mollie Flanagan, Nicole Marker and Lizzie Hornung
- Evan Smith gives his classmate Dielle Crasta an eye exam.
