Clinic in Ben Tre

Today was our first full clinic day in Ben Tre. Our hosts in Ben Tre are the commission for poor and disabled patients. For many of our team new to this experience, today brings excitement, anxious nervousness, and fear of the unexpected. No matter how much training we did since January, nothing prepares you for putting all that into practice. We arrived at clinic 8:00 am to an already packed waiting area. Patients were invited by the commission and have been eagerly awaiting this day.
The first hour is always the most chaotic. Coordinating the station set-up, organizing the best work-flow, working out the kinks in the planning, and then beginning to see the patients. I am pleased to say that the chaos existed but was significantly better than expected. We started checking in patients by 9:00 am by performing physical assessment techniques and patient interviews. We then transition each patient to a medical clinic room where a differential diagnose is made, followed by a definitive diagnosis from Bac Si Ha. After treatment is rendered in the medical clinic, the patient is directed toward our physical therapy area where we provide them the working knowledge on how to strengthen the affected areas. Finally, patients finish up in our pharmacy area receiving all the needed medications. This entire process is taxing on all involved, but the rewards of seeing the poorest patients get the best possible quality of care, fuels you for 12 hour day. We ended clinic at 8:00 pm with the following results: Registered medical patients: 79, Prosthetics fit: 29.
This is an amazing accomplishment for the first day. Typical years see about half those numbers on day 1. I guess all the training did pay off

!