Remote Area Medical Health Fair
Safety Net Screenings
Wise, Virginia:
In partnership with local organizations, we are working to meet the immediate health-care needs of 188,000 Coal County residents in southwestern Virginia, while developing resources for sustained care. The main collaborative partners in the delivery of medical care at the Remote Areas Medical (RAM) Health Fair in Wise are the Lenowisco Health District, the St. Mary's Health Wagon, the local and state Lion's Clubs, University of Virginia Health System, Virginia Dental Foundation, and the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps.
It was recognized from the beginning that only with the invitation of local providers and clear guidelines from them would or should UVA participate. UVA would provide as many of the requested services as we possibly could and would spend considerable time and energy interfacing with the participants from RAM, St. Mary's Health Wagon, the Lenowisco Health District and the Lion's Club. Without the trust and support of the local providers and citizens, we would only provide limited acute diagnoses to a system that needed coordinated, long-term and specialty care support.
Hearing Aid Distribution:
The Remote Area Medical (RAM) Health Fair, held annually in Wise, Virginia brings together health care volunteers from many subspecialties and several states. Diagnostic and habilitative audiology services are provided at RAM with the collaborative efforts of the University of Virginia (UVA) Medical Center, the UVA Curry School of Education, and the contributions of private industry and philanthropic groups from around the country. At RAM 2006, over 200 patients received audiological, medical, and hearing aid evaluations. Hearing aids were obtained for 80 patients who otherwise would not have been able to afford the devices.
The hearing aid distribution for 2007 was held February 17 & 18, 2007 at the Wise County Health Department in Wise, VA. A team of 14 distributed 60 hearing aids, completed 14 additional tests through serving 60 people with in 9 hours. The team consisted of UVa Health System Community Outreach/Service staff, UVa Curry School of Education - Communications Disorders Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathology students, and a Wise County School District Audiologist. Hearing aid & fitting procedure's fair market value was approximately $39,300. Cost of hearing aids through Hear Now Foundation was $50 each or $4,060 total. Hearing aid recipients contributed $1,185 towards the costs and Lion's Hearing Foundation contributed the remainder towards costs at $2,875.
UVa Health System Volunteers:
The RAM Clinic will be held July 20-22, 2007 at the Virginia-Kentucky Fairgrounds in Wise County, Virginia. This is the seventh year of official UVa participation in this event. Each year the number of patients seen has increased and luckily the number of people interested in participating has grown. Unfortunately, we will be unable to take everyone who is interested mostly because of cost and lack of lodging available. We are trying to have a mix of returning and new staff to carry on this tradition.
Everyone who participates from UVa volunteers their time for this event. The University of Virginia provides lodging in the dorms at UVA Wise. Food and drink is provided for all the volunteers and patients at the fairgrounds by local volunteers-except for dinners that the Health System provides in the UVA-Wise Dining Hall.
Last year we saw over 1,100 patients in three days. Our 20-bed clinic saw more patients than a busy Emergency Room sees on average in a 24 hour period. Common health concerns of this population include: hypertension, arthritis, poor dentition, depression, heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease, domestic violence, and illiteracy. Some patients will travel for three to five hours and sleep in their car overnight just to receive free care. Then they wait in line for hours. For most of them, it is the only time they see a physician the whole year. We are using buildings at the fairgrounds and must convert them into clinic space by cleaning and creating "walls" with ropes and sheets on the Thursday before the clinic opens on Friday.
UVa is providing several services. We will have a limited on-site pharmacy, lab and mammography. Social Services locally, and from UVA, will also be available. There will be a telemedicine hook-up on site. Last year, we were able to connect to the UVa scheduling system and schedule patients for follow-up appointments while they were at RAM. A grant was also obtained last year from the Virginia Healthcare Association to help fund transportation for patients needing follow-up to whatever physician they needed or choose to see. The Virginia Dental Association is organizing the dentistry team.
The tentative schedule is as follows:
| July 18th | 8:00 am | Pack up at UVA and Travel to Wise (6 hours one way) |
| July 19th | Assist with Set-up clinics at fairgrounds for the weekend, volunteer orientation. | |
| July 20th | 5:30 am - 6:00 + pm | Clinic at Fairground, evening dinner at UVa Wise |
| July 21st | 6:00 am - 6:00 + pm | Clinic at Fairground, evening dinner at UVa Wise |
| July 22nd | 6:00 am -12:00 pm | Clinic at Fairground, breakdown clinic, leave around 2 pm to return to Charlottesville. |
| July 22nd | 9:00 pm - 10:00 pm | Unload supplies and equipment at storage unit in Charlottesville |
Potential clinical areas include GI clinic, Pediatrics, Medicine, Hypertension/Diabetes, ENT, Ophthalmology, Women's Health, and dentistry.
Volunteering for RAM
UVa staff member interested in participating with this project need to complete a RAM application through VolunteerUVaHealth.org a service of the Office of Community Relations, Outreach and Service.
For more information and to receive an application, please contact Office of Community Relations, Outreach & Service at 924-5458 or visit the internal VolunteerUVaHealth site.