The Mission of the SCU: The Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured

From the January 21, 2022 issue of the Transformational Times (Urban and Community Health)

The Mission of the SCU: The Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured

Thomas Ritter, MD

Dr. Ritter wrote this essay when he was a fourth-year medical student at MCW.

The highlight of my medical school experience has undoubtedly been working at the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured (SCU). SCU is a student-run free clinic for patients without health insurance that operates at the intersection of North and Humboldt on, you guessed it, Saturdays. In addition to a name that is quite “on the nose," SCU has been a staple of the Milwaukee community for over twenty years. Our mission is to provide comprehensive, patient-centered, and equitable care to Milwaukee’s uninsured population.

Goal One: Provide high quality care

Uninsured patients in Milwaukee face an array of challenges to access healthcare and we have shaped SCU to meet the needs of our community. We have grown to become a long-term home for our patients to receive healthcare by marshalling resources at MCW and Milwaukee hospitals to provide access to lab work, mammograms, and specialists including ophthalmology, dermatology, and rheumatology. We offer an in-house dispensary of medications at no cost to our patients and have established a partnership with Seton Pharmacy at Ascension Columbia St. Mary’s to provide any medication we don’t have for a low-cost rate. We evaluate and address the social determinants of health for all of our patients, including food insecurity, legal assistance, and housing instability.

Goal Two: Improve cultural humility and clinical competence

In addition to its mission to provide comprehensive, patient-centered, and equitable care, SCU also aims to enrich the cultural humility and clinical competencies of its student volunteers. This second mission has certainly been achieved in my personal and professional life. Early in medical school, I was an eager learner of anatomy, pharmacology, and pathophysiology. While I certainly remain interested in these subjects of medicine, my experience at SCU has revealed to me the broader picture of medicine—to identify and critically examine the ways in which our patients, insured or not, encounter obstacles to receiving care. Whether the obstacle lies outside of healthcare, such as access to affordable transportation, or is an internal obstacle, such as racism in medicine, truly comprehensive care requires intervention on both a personal and societal level. 

SCU has taught me that providing patient-centered care requires grace to meet patients where they are, see the world through their eyes, and act accordingly. Providing equitable care necessitates intentional introspection and the evaluation of my own biases on a daily basis.

I believe SCU’s contribution to the Milwaukee community is difficult to truly measure. While direct patient care can be quantified by the number of patients seen or referrals sent, the impression SCU makes on its volunteers who go out and serve in their own way after graduating, although intangible, cannot be overlooked. I am becoming a family medicine physician because of my time at SCU, and I am only one of many volunteers in SCU’s long history who enter healthcare with a heart for service and dedication for justice. I am grateful to have worked at SCU and encourage all who are interested to volunteer there as well.

To learn more about the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured, check out the website here.

Thomas Ritter, MD was a member of the MCW-Milwaukee Class of 2022. He followed his heart as is currently a resident in the MCW Family Medicine program at Columbia St. Mary's Hospital in Milwaukee.

Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams: From Slave & Immigrant Families to Ivy League Residents

From the April 21, 2023 issue of the Transformational Times

Our Ancestors’ Wildest Dreams: From Slave & Immigrant Families to Ivy League Residents 

 

British Fields, MLS(ASCP), BMS, BS and Adriana Perez, MSBS, BS 

 

Our journey at MCW as two first-generation, underrepresented in medicine (URiM) students navigating a system that once didn’t accept people that looked like us to creating a space of advocacy for patients and future generations of Black and Brown medical students... 

 

“No, I’m not the interpreter. No, I’m not the cleaning staff. I’m a student doctor.” These phrases became all too familiar to us as we embarked on the journey to becoming physicians. We had gone from being praised for being the first doctors in our families, to countless encounters with patients and medical staff assuming we weren't the student doctor because of the color of our skin.  

 

The Culture Shock 

Being first-generation medical students came with a lot more struggles than we anticipated. One of the hardest challenges to overcome was that of being financially disadvantaged. Who knew there would be a whole hidden curriculum requirement that included things like exam question banks, Sketchy, Pixorize, Pathoma, Boards & Beyond, Figs scrubs, Danskos, business casual/professional attire, and much more. Spending money to get on an equal footing seemed like an impossible task as our families didn’t understand that there was much to becoming a doctor than what was taught in lectures.  

 

We both soon realized we weren’t in Kansas anymore. The rigor of medical school was something we did not fully grasp until we both failed the first MtC quiz after two weeks of nonstop studying. After many failed exams, we spiraled into four years of secret self-doubt, self-loathing, and imposter syndrome.  

 

Although these feelings became ingrained in us, we knew that there was a bigger purpose at play here as our patients said “İSi se puede hermanita, necesitamos mas doctores como tu!” (You can do it little sister; we need more doctors like you!).  

 

Our Commitment to Changing Culture 

While we knew coming into medical school that we were not in the majority, the differences in our identities and background were further amplified. Although these feelings initially weighed us down, we learned to harness and use them as fuel to support each other and other students throughout our journey. We quickly became involved with different organizations at MCW that shared goals of supporting students who are racially/ethnically and economically disadvantaged at the institution, in the community, and eventually at a national level through the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), Latinx Medical Student Association (LMSA), and White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL).  

 

It didn’t always feel like we were having an impact, but we were reminded to continue our work when we heard comments like, “I saw you at the Bridging the Gap panel! Your story inspired me to take a gap year to retake the MCAT and apply next year!” 

 

We were also privileged to receive the opportunity to help students at an institutional level through our Mitigating Implicit Bias in Clerkship Evaluations research project, which allowed us to show that there are differences in how students who are URiM are evaluated, compared to our non-URiM counterparts. We hope that our project has provided some background on this issue, and some tools for creating a more just and equitable learning environment.  

 

Also, we sought ways to increase our involvement in caring for historically marginalized and vulnerable communities in Milwaukee.  

 

Through the Saturday Clinic for the Uninsured (SCU) and Walker’s Point Community Clinic (WPCC), we were reinvigorated to solidify our place in medicine as patients told us, “You’re the first doctor I’ve had that looks like me.” These were the times that inspired us to keep pushing in moments of self-doubt on patient rounds or failed exams.  

 

Thank You to Our Champions 

None of this work would have been possible without the exceptional mentors we have been fortunate to find along the way! They may not know this, but they have rescued us from some of the darkest places with their words of encouragement, recommending us for numerous opportunities, and serving as the role models we never knew we needed.  

 

We aspire to be as fearless as Drs. Earnestine Willis (Pediatrics) and Christina Diaz (Pediatric Anesthesiology).  

 

We want to be as selfless as Jean Mallett (Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity) and Dr. Cassie Ferguson (Pediatric Emergency Medicine).  

 

We strive to move change forward like Drs. Michael Levas (Pediatric Emergency Medicine), and Kris Saudek (Pediatrics).  

 

We hope to treat all with kindness and empathy like Drs. Karen Carlson (Hematology/Oncology), Malika Siker (Radiation Oncology/OSID), Sarah Nickoloff (Palliative Care), Stacy Fairbanks (Anesthesiology), and Steven Murphy (Family Medicine). 

 

We plan on being overall BOMB women physicians of color like Drs. Chelsea Willie (Pediatric Anesthesiology and Critical Care), Erica Arrington (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry), Camille Garrison (Family Medicine), and Callisia Clarke (Surgical Oncology). 

 

The Light at the End of the Tunnel 

At MCW, we found the things that we are most passionate about, mentors who believed in us, and served as role models. We gained the exposure and the tools necessary to continue to pursue our work in addressing healthcare disparities through research and within medical education through teaching and mentoring students at all levels of training.  

 

No, we are not just future physicians. We are advocates, teachers, mentors, change agents, and hermanas (sisters).  

 

British Fields is a 4th year Medical Student at the MCW Milwaukee Campus who will soon be a Pediatric Intern at Harvard University’s Boston Combined Residency Program in the Leadership in Equity and Advocacy Track. 

 

Adriana Perez is a 4th year Medical Student at the MCW Milwaukee Campus who will soon be a resident in the Yale University School of Medicine Department of Anesthesiology. 

 

They are both on the Student Pillar of the Robert D. and Patricia E. Kern Institute for the Transformation of Medical Education.