Birmingham Mission 2/22

We were at Birmingham Clinic last Monday. We ended up seeing about 15 patients. As usual we saw a diverse group of people with a diverse group of problems.

I've always thought that one of the great things about the care model we're using in GES is the potential for continuity of care. Our committment to return to each site we go to on a regular basis allows us to make sure that what we're doing is making a difference. As a result, it was particularly gratifying to see two diabetic patients, each of whom had diabetic macular edema and each of whom had laser for it at Mercy, return for follow up at Birmingham. We were able to compare their before and after photos and really demonstrate an improvement.

We also saw a gentleman who lost the vision in one eye due to trauma at age 5. The dilated exam in his working eye showed marked retinal atherosclerosis and an old branch retinal vein occlusion. It turned out that his blood pressure was higher than it should be. One of the other neat things about the GES care model is that we're working where the patients are recieving their primary care. At Birmingham in particular, the medicine team is usually working at the same time we are. As a result we were able to show the IM folks the pictures and demonstrate how our patient's hypertension was damaging his only working eye. They were happy to add him on to their schedule and focus on his blood pressure.

Thanks to Dr Wu and Dr Shah for teaching and keeping things organized. Thanks to each of the students who helped out seeing patients. We were a little held up due to lack of sufficient Spanish interpreters. Special thanks to Allison who managed to get us through. If you've been on the fence about coming and you speak Spanish we could really use your help at the next Birmingham mission.

Our next mission is on Friday, March 5th and will be at Cornerstone Care in Greensboro, PA. Cornerstone Care serves a largely rural community of patients in an area that is known for coal mining and glassmaking. Our focus at Greensboro is detection of diabetic retinopathy. Our Greensboro mission will be followed the next day by a mission to neighboring Waynesburg. GES members who want to stay overnight will be fed and lodged courtesy of Southwest PA AHEC.

See you there.

Jake