The Free Clinic

Every Wednesday night, patients begin to form a line in the hallways of Lubbock Impact hoping to receive medical care. As of this year more than 3,000 unique patients have received medical attention at the student-run free clinic that is completely staffed, operated and led by medical students. This year’s leadership team has made some changes, including a name change to The Free Clinic.

Patrick Marquardt, second-year medical student and leader of The Free Clinic, said the hope is to make it easier for community members.

“An official name had never been cemented and coming into leadership this year, it was one of our goals to keep the name consistent, for people to know where they are going,” Marquardt said. “It’s important to have an official name moving forward. We are the same clinic, but we hope this will make it easier for patients to identify. This is the name of the future.”

With the new name, comes a new logo and look for The Free Clinic that the leadership team hopes will help those in the community associate with the health care that they provide.

Since taking over the clinic in April, the medical student leadership team, which consists of Patrick Marquardt, Matt Driver, Stacey Lynch, Kandis Wright and Peihsuan Tsai, has been hard at work to continue the tradition of past teams as well as implementing new things to better provide health care at the clinic. Marquardt said the different personalities and talents of the team benefit the clinic.

This August, The Free Clinic received a $25,000 grant from the national Chartis Foundation. Marquardt said the grant will help provide vaccinations at the clinic.

“This was the first grant we had done as a leadership team,” Marquardt said. “We are excited to now provide Influenza vaccinations as well as Gardasil and T-dap. We are planning to expand this program and offer others, such as Zostavax for shingles and Pneumovax for meningitis and pneumonia. Vaccinations are expensive, but if people can get them we can prevent many diseases.”

The Free Clinic this year also has a new tool with the use of ultrasound technology. The Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center simulation center loans ultrasound equipment every week and Marquardt says now they can be more high tech and see things we could not have before.

“To our knowledge, we are the only student-run free clinic in the nation which has access to ultrasound,” Marquardt said. “This is for educational opportunities not for diagnostic purposes. Three of the five leadership members are currently taking an ultrasound elective class and there is a physician in charge who guides us and teaches us. We encourage our students to use it because ultrasound is being implemented across the country in all specialties of medicine.”

Patients of The Free Clinic continue to take part in specialty clinics like the Women’s Health Day Clinic held in October.

“More than 25 women came out and we received a lot of great feedback from both students and patients,” Marquardt said. “Women I talked to on the phone had never had a pap smear and many did not know what exams they even needed to get. This health care is not accessible to them. So it’s a success for The Free Clinic to be able to provide this for our community.”

Although the leadership team helps coordinate students, which now includes nursing and pharmacy students, for the clinic, Fiona Prabhu, M.D., and Kelly Bennett, M.D., organize and recruit the physicians who see patients. Marquardt said the teamwork with students, physicians and Lubbock Impact provides much needed health care for the area’s uninsured.

“We are excited to make the clinic something that will last into the future and help the students that come after us,” Marquardt said. “The Free Clinic is all about the patient experience. We are helping a lot of people and feel that we are truly making a difference in this community. This clinic has also shown us how to run a medical practice and has been an invaluable experience to us as students. We are honored to be a part of The Free Clinic.”

The Free Clinic
Wednesdays, 6 to 10 p.m.
2707 34th St
http://www.ttuhsc.edu/student-affairs/free-clinic/
www.lubbockfreeclinic.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheFreeClinicLubbock

Previous Leadership Teams:

• 2013-2014 Leadership Team:
  Feba Thomas, Student Liaison:
 Sean Hattenbach,
 Austin Meyer,
 Lauren Tollack and
 Duy Vu


• 2012-2013 Leadership Team:
  Justin Berk, Student Liaison:
 Steve Cowles,
 Sharon Moore,
 Chris Prze 
and Michael Song


• 2011-2012 Leadership Team:
  Marie Pfarr, Student Liaison:
 Michelle Devine,
 Karen Luk,
 Sydney Reynolds 
and Michael Song


• 2010-2011 Leadership Team:
  Mu Chen, Student Liaison: Harjot Singh,
 Jennifer Roh
 and Megan Shupp


• 2009-2010 Leadership Team:
  Brian Mahmood, Student Liaison: Carlos Ortiz,
 Revathi Ravi and Natalie Frieh
  

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