Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Growing!

Growing everyday. Things are still slower than we would like, but people are coming!!!! We are so excited.  We have been giving out flu shots for the last week and a half and that has brought some wonderful folks into the clinic.

A few things going on this week....

We are also planning on having a Women's Health Event next month. The tentative dates are Nov 16-17th. It is short notice, but anything we can do to get more awareness for the clinic and people in the doors is a good thing.  We have a few provider volunteers for the event but could use more.  We will be    doing a complete physical and counseling including Pap for $25 (cost of the lab only).

The Contributor, a wonderful local Nashville paper that specifically address local issues effecting our homeless community, is doing a story on our clinic.  What an honor. It is also nice to have one more friend in Nashville. More Info on The Contributor

Our interdisciplinary learning students have really stepped up this past week as well. They have been canvassing the neighborhood encouraging patients to come in the clinic...hey we are not proud...they are very enthusiastic and free!! Love our students.

For anyone into medical tech stuff, our Interface with our lab vendor, LabCorp will be up and running by the end of the week I hope. I also plan on doing a survey at some point soon to see if a patient portal would be well received or not. Then see if we can get it paid for of course.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

The Clinic at Mercury Courts

The Clinic at Mercury Courts is a Nurse Managed Health Center established by Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in collaboration with Urban Housing Solution, a not for profit housing organizations providing affordable, permanent housing for low income and recently homeless individuals and families. Our ongoing goal is to provide a stabilizing influence for this often neglected and overlooked part of the Nashville community while also educating our next generation of healthcare providers. We are accomplishing this by utilizing a holistic and collaborative healthcare model incorporating the disciplines of nursing, medicine, pharmacy, social service and the individual as equal partners on the healthcare team.

We have had our doors open for only 3 months but already, we can tell this is going to be a great experience. Everybody has been great are almost having to turn away volunteers and supported...Almost.  It has been very encouraging all the support we have gotten. In fact, just last week our clinic was able to collaborate with the Vanderbilt Center for Integrative Heath, Shade Tree Clinic, and Mission Point to co-sponsor the Nashville Premier of Escape Fire:The Fight to Rescue American Health Care.  It was a wild success!!! The film was excellent (I saw it twice already) and the post discussion was very enlightening.  I particularly enjoyed seeing the interactions between the different health disciplines. It gave me quite a bit of needed hope for health cares future. 

In fact, it reminded me of what we are doing at the Clinic at Mercury Courts.  This Clinic is starting from a base of interdisciplinary practice like I have rarely seen in 15 years of clinical practice. My continued hope is that we will be one of many catalysts that spark new life into the American healthcare system.