Remote Area Medical will bring free health care services to two Southwest Virginia towns this fall, and both clinics still need more health care volunteers.
The Tennessee-based nonprofit, commonly referred to as RAM, runs pop-up clinics that provide free medical, dental and vision care in underserved areas nationwide. These events depend on volunteer medical professionals who donate their time and expertise.
The Grudy clinic will run Oct. 18 and 19 at Riverview Elementary and Middle School, 27382 Riverside Drive. About nine additional vision volunteers are still needed, said Reagan Monday, a volunteer coordinator with RAM. This could be a mix of ophthalmology and optometry personnel.
The Pearisburg clinic, the first RAM event in the Giles County town, will be held Nov. 15 and 16 at Giles High School, 1825 Wenonah Ave. The event still needs about five vision volunteers and nine medical volunteers, Monday said.
Practitioners can register through the volunteer page on the RAM website. For both clinics, vision care is the greatest need.
RAM clinics provide care to individuals who are uninsured or underinsured, as well as to people who simply can’t get in to see a provider for several months.
No insurance information or identification is collected. All services are free of charge.
“Surprisingly a lot of the people we see are not completely uninsured. There’s a number of people that are just underinsured or they aren’t able to get an appointment to get their tooth extracted for several months but it’s causing them extreme pain,” Monday said.
Clients can access dental services such as cleaning, cavity fillings and extractions.
Vision care includes eye exams and, in many cases, prescription glasses made on-site.
“People can come to us having never seen an eye doctor and they can leave that day with a pair of prescription glasses. We can make them on site,” Monday said.
The clinics also provide general medical exams, glucose testing and women’s health services such as pap smears and pregnancy testing.
Grundy has a long history with RAM. The first clinic held there was in 1999, and at least 20 have taken place since. Pearisburg, meanwhile, is a first-time site, hosted by Virginia Tech’s RAM undergraduate chapter. Students in these campus-based chapters often attend clinics as a group and, in some cases, help organize new sites.
“It’s similar to a school club,” Monday said, adding that students are able to visit other clinic sites as a group.
Some chapters then go on to organize new sites.
Launching a new clinic comes with challenges, especially getting the word out, Monday said. Virginia Tech students have been visiting offices to secure the Pearisburg location and reaching out to the patient population, she said.
RAM’s national organization, meanwhile, draws on its broad volunteer network.
In the weeks before coming to Pearisburg, RAM will hold clinics in Nevada, Tennessee, Maryland, Florida and Pennsylvania. Demand is consistently high.
Patients often line up before the clinic begins, even before the parking lot opens up. The lots officially open at midnight the night before, but many patients arrive earlier and find other places to stay until the 6 a.m. start.
“The parking lot is probably the most impactful thing I’ve ever seen. The amount of people that are willing to spend the night or two nights in their car, sometimes in the dead of winter, to receive care — it just goes to show how bad the need is,” Monday said.
She also urges patients who stay overnight to continue all prescribed medications, especially for blood pressure and blood sugar. If these conditions are uncontrolled, some services may not be available.
