Philippines 2016: Day 4

Wednesday January 20, 2016

Today we left the hotel with some experience under our belt. It is day 2 of clinics – and we went to a small village in the Barangay of Buluangan in the morning and the Barangay of Sinapsapan in the afternoon which is about 7 miles away – but seems farther due to the winding roads and hills. There are 6 Barangays (or districts) in the province of Jordan.

Buluangan clinic site was a school- we were met with line ups and the registration staff there to get ahead of the line.
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Flow is a very important term when it comes to these clinics- and there is a lot to consider. First you have to keep registration away from the various services or there are people wondering all over the clinic. You have to look at what we have to work with- we consider all of the following:
•    How many people are we expecting?
•    Where do we put registration? Will locals help us?
•    Do we have any private rooms (classrooms, principal’s office) for the doctor and possibly dentist?
•    Do we have any water or easy access to water?
•    Where is the shade now? Where is it going to be?
•    We need tables- can the locals go get them? What chairs do we have?
•    We need pharmacy to be last stop as they leave- but still be shaded.
•    How many nursing stations will we need?
•    Where can we put fluoride – we need a location that can handle a lot of kids and keep that part away from the clinic.
•    Where can we put waiting areas?

There is a lot to consider- and this is why the first half hour is total bedlam in the clinics while we try to figure it out.

Buluangan was a village that was small enough to quickly get good patient flow and set up. The team kept up and we finished in good time. For lunch the team had eggplant and dried fish with rice. Every day we have little bananas that are some of the sweetest you have ever tasted. We saw 209 patients plus 77 fluoride.

The registration team moved to Sinapsapan early to get ahead of the crowd. Nursing, glasses and the fluoride team followed in the Jeepney while the pharmacy group finished up the last few patients.

The Jeepney driver took a “short cut” down a narrow dirt road through rice fields- very pretty and gave us the chance to see the real back country. Very dry areas with little topsoil, lots of rocks.

Sinapsapan is a small village, and we were set up in the school. Pharmacy, Dentists, MD’s and nurses in classrooms, fluoride and glasses under the trees. Lots of help from the Mayor – the EMS guys, the public health nurses- all helping us to see patients in an efficient manner.
We had a great day- in Sinapsapan- we saw 237 patients, and 111 school children for fluoride. Glasses was 148 in total.

The mayor and governor came as well as his wife who is a physician. She was able to help the other 3 MD’s that came to provide support.
The team made it back to the hotel by 5 or so, swim and supper. The hotel is doing a great job with meals for us. Today we had calamari, ribs, fries, vegetables and watermelon.
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Tomorrow, we have Lawi – and are in one place for the whole day!