Clinic at Mercury Courts 4 Year Anniversary in August

The Clinic at Mercury Courts

In August 2016, The Clinic at Mercury Courts will be celebrating its 4^th year serving residents of Urban Housing Solutions and the surrounding community, as well as, the Greater Nashville Metropolitan as a whole. We have had so many successes over the past 4 years it is almost impossible to list them all, but here are just a few of our most exceptional achievements and highlights over the past 4 years.

1. The Vanderbilt Pre-Nursing Society Miles for Mercury 5K

For the past two years the Vanderbilt Pre-Nursing Society has organized the Miles for Mercury 5K run. This event was completely planned and implemented by undergraduate students at Vanderbilt University preparing to enter into nursing school. Besides coming up with a remarkably catchy name for their event, they were able to single handedly raise over $3,000.  This money has gone directly to the medical needs of patients at the clinic. Specifically, the funds were used to provide medicine, supplies, and testing for the many patients in Davidson County that still do not have access to health insurance of any kind due to their socioeconomic status.

Inaugural Mile for Mercury 5K

2. Starting Point 2014-2015 Adult and Family Events

Between 2014 and 2015 the Clinic Mercury Courts provided volunteers and medical leadership for 2 major events organized by the Nashville Coalition for the Homeless. Between these two events the clinic, in collaboration with multiple community partners, was able to provide medical, behavioral and dental services to over 500 individuals and families experiencing chronic homelessness. These events had student, faculty and staff volunteers from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing, Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, and Trevecca University Physicians Assistant Program.

Starting Point Family Event Team

Providing needed foot care at Starting Point Adult Event

 3. Holiday Gift Bags

Due to the generous donations of Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Faculty and Staff, the Clinic at Mercury Courts has maintained the holiday tradition of giving back to our community.  Each holiday season, the clinic has been able to give out over 300 gift bags to patients and community members as a thank you for trusting us to provide primary care services and educate the next generation of healthcare leaders within their community.  It truly is our privilege to serve them.

Gift Bag Prep for the Holidays is always fun and messy!

4. Publications and Presentations

The Clinic has been asked to present its unique Interprofessional Practice and Education Model at both Stanford University’s Medicine-X Ed in Stanford, CA and at The Interprofessional Healthcare Summit at Armstrong University in Savannah, GA. Both of these events were internationally attended events. The talks focused on educating and creating dialog between healthcare leaders both nationally and globally about the needs and benefits, as well as, the challenges facing the advancement of team-based care in today’s healthcare environment. 

Team Preparing to speak at MedX ED at Stanford University

 Over the years the clinic has also served as the platform for numerous interprofessional students projects from notable programs, such as the Vanderbilt Program for Interprofessional Learning, The Cal Turner Fellowship and The Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance. Notable project topics include the development of social services assessment procedures, diabetes testing protocols, and organizational and clinical strategic planning projects (new programs and service expansions for the clinic).

VPIL Team present diabetes improvement plan at Vanderbilt University

 Lastly, the work of the clinic has been featured in numerous practice and academic journals. Here are a few links to recent publication below:

Integration of Clinical Pharmacist Services into an Underserved Primary Care Clinic Utilizing an Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Model

Evidence-Guided Integration of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice into Nurse Managed Health Centers

Evidence-based development in nurse-led interprofessional teams

All of these successful endeavors have been possible due to the dedicated work of the staff, students, and providers serving in the clinic, our consistently reliable community partners, and the supportive communities in which we serve, live and work.  To mention them all or express the amount of gratitude we have for them would simply be impossible. 

* The Clinic at Mercury Courts is partially funded under an agreement with the State of Tennessee as a Safety Net clinic.