A Day at Mercy Health Center

On Tuesday nights, I volunteer at Mercy Health Center and get to experience what it is like to seek care at a free clinic. Below is a description of the typical day and challenges that I have seen at Mercy. (Patient names and specific details will not be presented.)

Imagine yourself as a patient at Mercy Health Center. When you first walk through the clinic doors, you enter a large waiting room that seats roughly fifty people. It is packed with patients of all ages: children, adults, the elderly, and, sometimes, young adults. The atmosphere is friendly; however, you feel nervous because it is your first time at the clinic and you do not know what to expect. Or, maybe you feel self-conscious because you are going to a free clinic and hope that the people around you do not judge. You walk to the front-desk to check in and are greeted by some friendly volunteers who look a little too young to be health care professionals. They ask you to sign in on a sheet of paper and, when you finish, they put your chart up for the triage team to take you in.

When its finally your turn to see the doctors (the wait could take 10 minutes to near an hour depending on how far behind the doctors are in seeing patients), a triage nurse calls takes you back to take your vital signs (blood pressure, temperature, etc). You look around the walkway and see seven examination rooms, seven prayer rooms, booths for social services, a pharmacy, and large central stations where volunteers...

The atmosphere at Mercy is friendly; however, many patients have told us about their feeling of being stigmatized for going to a free clinic. As volunteers, we try to reduce the stigma by being professional during clinic, striking up conversations with patients, and being supportive when they need help. At MHC, I volunteer at the front desk and usually get to interact with every patient who walks through the doors. Oftentimes, I am the first friendly face that people see when they come to Mercy, and sometimes a simple "Hi, welcome to Mercy Health Center" seems to bring patients relief.

The biggest barrier to accessing care that I have seen at Mercy is a patient's ability to make it to the clinic on time. This can be challenging because patients have to work multiple jobs. However, the clinic is flexible in that it provides nighttime hours from 5-8pm Tuesday through Wednesday. Oftentimes, patients will call on the day of their appointment to say that their car broke down or they no longer have a way of getting to the clinic. Patients have even had their cars break down on site, and we have sent volunteers out to jump cars. Something that could be beneficial for Mercy patients, I think would be some sort of service to help patients get to clinic if they are unable to; however, I think this is not very feasible financially.

Given that the clinic is run completely on grant funding, volunteer help from both students and practicing health care workers, and a dedicated staff, it is amazing the variety of services that the clinic can offer. Gynecologists, optometrists, dentists, and even neurologists make monthly rounds at the clinic. In 2012 alone, Mercy saw over 10,000 patients. Though they only fill a small part of the large need within our community, Mercy is an integral part of the Athens safety net and hopefully it can continue to grow.