Rural Area Medical Clinic To Provide Free Medical Care

By The Continuous News Desk

Published: July 14, 2008

BY TIMOTHY CAMA
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

WISE, Va. – Hundreds of volunteer medical professionals are preparing to break records again this summer with the ninth annual Rural Area Medical Clinic from July 25 to 27.

The clinic will provide a wide range of free medical care to those in need.

Last year’s clinic set national records with 2,506 patients receiving 8,401 procedures, according to a news release from the University of Virginia Health System, and clinic organizers expect to break those records this year.

Volunteers will provide medical, dental and optical services at the Wise County Fairgrounds from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday, July 25, and Saturday, July 26, then from 6 a.m. to noon on Sunday, July 27. Registration begins at 6 a.m. Friday, and care is on a first-come, first-served basis.

“It’s a really gratifying experience,” said Scott Syverud, an emergency medical physician at University Hospital in Charlottesville and professor of emergency medicine at UVa School of Medicine. “It reminds us why we went into medicine.”

UVa will bring about 200 volunteers, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists, social workers and medical students to the clinic.

Many of the clinic’s volunteers are from UVa, but other organizations, such as The Health Wagon and the Virginia Dental Association, bring volunteers to the event, and local medical professionals also volunteer.

The clinic is aimed at people who have no health insurance; the underinsured; the unemployed, who cannot afford health care or for some other reason cannot get appropriate health care.

Syverud stressed that by providing the clinic, volunteers don’t mean to imply that health care is inadequate in the area.

“Southwest Virginia has a very good health care system,” he said. “I’m always surprised by how good it is.”

Instead, the clinic is set up to help those who lack access to the health care system for a variety of reasons.

RAM has provided the clinic in Wise since 2001, and Syverud has been coordinating UVa’s participation in it for the past five years. UVa also participates in the RAM Clinic in Grundy, which will take place later this summer, Syverud said.

In addition to the volunteers, UVa also donates hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of medical supplies to the RAM Clinic, said Syverud. Medical specialists also will be available at UVa’s campus in Charlottesville for phone consultation during the clinic.

Services offered at Wise’s clinic will include eye exams, eyeglasses, dental care, hearing exams, retinascope eye exams, medical exams, dermatology, lung care, osteopathic treatment, bone density testing, mammography, gynecology, non-narcotic pharmaceuticals, laboratory testing and health education, according to a news release from The Health Wagon.

This year, RAM will introduce fast-track medical and fast-track eyeglass services, the release noted. Fast-track medical service is for patients who don’t need dental or optical care, while fast-track eyeglasses service is for patients who already have had a recent eye exam and only need eyeglasses.

TIMOTHY CAMA is an intern with the Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 669-2181.