Serving the Under-served

Students help make a difference at HOMES Clinic

By Darla Brown

Connecting underserved patients who need medical care with volunteer student health care teams ready to help is what the HOMES Clinic experience provides in the shadow of downtown Houston every Sunday.

The free homeless clinic at Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church is open 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. only on Sundays and is staffed by students from the Medical School, Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, and the UT School of Public Health. Students from these professional schools form small teams to help 10-20 patients a day.

"The student team sees the patient first, then they are seen by the attending physician, then they go to the pharmacy to get any medications they may need," explains Chirag Patel, a second-year medical student and volunteer.

The Medical School has been participating in this outreach program for six years, since the clinic's inception.

"The goal of our participation is to provide students real-life experience in all four years of their medical education with patients who really need care and direction through the often cumbersome health care system," says Andrew Harper, M.D., assistant dean for educational programs and faculty liaison for the HOMES Clinic.

Students say the volunteer work, for which they can receive blue book credit, is a great learning and teaching experience.

"It's a chance for the third- and fourthyear students to feel on top of the totem pole for once because they are leading the firstand second-years, guiding them as they take histories and physical exams," Patel explains.

The team approach helps not only the students prepare for life after Medical School but also is a tremendous benefit for the patients.

"The medical, public health, and pharmacy students working together allows us to provide a wide range of services, helping with medications and treatment plans," says second-year student Kerry Welsh, who serves on the student board of HOMES.

In addition to getting immediate medical attention to the homeless population, another goal of the HOMES Clinic is to help patients procure Gold Cards, which provides health care resources from the county free of charge, or on a sliding scale.

"By volunteering at the clinic, we learn so much about the system – we learn how complicated it is. I hope that by volunteering, students after they graduate and become physicians will still take time out to care for the underserved and still come back to serve as preceptors for the HOMES Clinic," Welsh adds.

There is a need for both UT student, faculty, and alumni volunteers. To volunteer, go to www.homeless-healthcare.org/homesprogram.