First Official Clinic Day

After our team picked up the Mercer team from the airport, we traveled directly to Ben Tre where we will hold our first of 3 clinic sites. Our mission is comprised of 2 main components: 1. The fitting of prosthetic legs to amputees and 2. An orthopedic disorders clinic. Our entire team this year is the largest to date, which includes 50 members. The team members get divided into stations. Each member has to rotate through each station, including the prosthetics clinic. (Which I will discuss in the next entry). When we arrive at the clinic site at 7:00 am, there are already about 50 patients waiting. Some have traveled for hours just to get treated. The temperature of the first day is expected to reach a “real-feel” of 45 degrees C. (114 degrees F) . As you will notice, our light blue scrubs will not stay dry for long. After a typical chaotic first hour, the workflow is greatly improved. Our students get to use all of the clinical pharmacy skills they have learned through their years of didactic and practical training. The initial station is intake. This station is crucial to the entire clinic flow. We have excellent fluent Vietnamese speaking students to interview each patient to illicit a chief complaint, past medical history, and current medication list. At the same time, another student will perform all physical assessment techniques needed to evaluate them more thoroughly, including blood pressure, pulse, blood glucose, height and weight. The patient then enters the actual clinic room, where a student will evaluate, assess and make a differential diagnosis. This information is relayed to Bac Si Ha, and he confirms with a definitive diagnosis and performs his treatment. Once orthopedic treatment is completed, students assist with the prescribing of medications for longer-term treatment. The patient then enters a physical therapy station, and is taught basic techniques to relieve their condition long-term. Finally, the patient enters the pharmacy area, where proper medication dispensing takes place and accurate counseling is performed by another fluent Vietnamese speaking student. This care in most of our locations, is the only care some of these patients will get. It is our hope that we provide a thorough, complete and successful treatment to each patient. So far we will expect approximately 120 patients per day for the first few days of clinic.