Abilene docs team up with Dr. Oz
Oz, host of “The Dr. Oz Show,” will air footage from the free clinic at 11 a.m. on October 15 on KTXS-TV Channel 12.
This article originally was posted by Janet Van Vleet, Special to the Reporter-News, on October 14, 2009 at 10 p.m. at www.reporternews.com.
As politicians in Washington, D.C., debate universal health care ad nauseam, more than 700 volunteers gathered in Houston recently to actually do something for patients who can’t afford insurance.
More than a dozen doctors, nurses and other volunteers from Abilene traveled to Houston to take part in possibly the largest single-day free health clinics ever held. The clinic, sponsored by “The Dr. Oz Show,” dispensed medical care to more than 1,750 people on Sept. 26 at the Reliant Center.
Camera crews for the syndicated medical-themed talk show filmed the clinic activity throughout the day. Additional footage was shot in Dr. Mehmet Oz’s New York studio last week and that episode can be seen at 11 a.m. today on KTXS-TV Channel 12.
J. Scott Golding, executive director for the Presbyterian Medical Care Mission in Abilene, got involved with the event through his involvement on the boards of the National Association of Free Clinics and the Lone Star Association of Charitable Clinics. The free and charitable clinics across the country receive little to no funding from the state and federal government, he said.
“One of the misconceptions about these clinics is that we see poor people,” Golding said. “But 85 percent of the patients are working people.”
Oz was looking for a large city where he could host a free clinic to reach 1,000 people. The show contacted the National Association of Free Clinics to help coordinate.
Houston has the highest population of unemployed people in the nation, Golding said, so it is the logical choice. As the only NAFC board member from Texas, Golding became the local point man and contacted his peers in Houston. The local free and charitable clinics there spread the word to their patients and volunteers, and six weeks later, it all came together, Golding said.
Curtained cubicles spread across the 160,000-square-foot space, along with labs, MRIs, X-ray machines and other tools of the medical trade. The volunteers arrived before dawn, including the Abilene group, which arrived at 5 a.m.
The doors opened at 8 a.m., and for nearly 12 hours doctors treated hundreds of patients. Three physicians, Drs. Darrold Stoebner and George Woodward, who work at the PMCM, and Dr. Fred White, who holds a special clinic there once a month, represented Abilene at the clinic.
“It’s the same sort of thing we do here at our clinic,” Stoebner said. “We give care to people who have no insurance and no money.”
All three said the key factor that made the clinic a success was the fact that the patients were given information about where to receive follow-up care at various clinics near them.
“If there was no follow-up, we really wouldn’t have accomplished much,” White said. “We don’t want to make gestures; we want to make a difference.”
The patients’ ailments ranged from garden-variety colds and coughs to thyroid tumors and prostate cancer. The clinic received lots of attention from the local and national media, including “Countdown with Keith Olberman.” Olberman appealed to his viewers and raised $575,000 for free clinics. Woodward saw the clinic as a way to bring attention to free clinics.
“I’m passionate about what we do here and to be able to take that to the level we did in Houston was fabulous,” Woodward said. “It’s just people helping people.”
