IU students bring hope to uninsured

Robert Shaw, who has been unemployed for a year and is about to run out of savings, has no money to pay for health care.

Shaw is one of the estimated 561,000 Hoosiers without health insurance.

On Saturday morning, Shaw sat in a fold out chair in the Neighborhood Fellowship Church. He was not waiting for a service to begin but to receive medical care for free.

IU medical and dentistry students and Butler University pharmacy students run the IU Student Outreach Clinic in the east-side community of Indianapolis. Every Saturday from 10 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. they treat uninsured patients without cost.

“If I can pay the electric bill and put food on the table, then other things have to go and unfortunately health care is a luxury at this point,” Shaw said.

The clinic provides basic care such as treating high blood pressure, hypertension, providing check up examinations and medications such as antibiotics and pain medication, according to student volunteers.

Like Shaw, Deborah Martin does not have health insurance for her family. She returned to the clinic with her children to get much needed medical care.

“I like it because last time I was here, they checked me, talked to me and they were more concerned about my overall health,” said Martin. “Without insurance you’re really lost.”

Both the church and community are thrilled to have the clinic because it provides a service that is a rarity for many residents, according to church member Doug Elliott.

“The staff has been kind to them and taken care of them and did not treat them like second-class citizens,” Elliott said. “That is a problem that a lot of these people run into at times.”

The service provided will help prevent patients from putting off their medical needs until they have to go to a hospital for a serious case, said third-year medical student and director of promotions Hannah Choe.

Choe said the clinic also gives students much needed experience.

“I think even the most basic care provides lessons for students because we have people of all levels of medical experience,” Choe said.

Here, first- and second-year medical students have the opportunity to work with patients and check their vital signs, while third- and fourth-year students talk to patients and find out the history of their illness.

After getting all of the patient information, students meet together to figure out the diagnosis and way of treatment under the supervision of a licensed physician. A licensed pharmacist supervises pharmacy students as well.

“It’s better than reading and studying all of the time,” said first-year medical student Jeannette MacIntyre. “It reminds us of why we went to medical school.”