Hello, my name is Doctor Sarah Walker, and I'm honored to serve as the 2025 president of the El Paso County Medical Society.

On behalf of our organization, I want to welcome you and thank you for tuning in to the El Paso physician.

For the past 28 years, the El Paso physician has been dedicated to serving our community, and we are grateful for the continued opportunity to bring this program to you on PBS El Paso.

This would not be possible without the generous support of our community sponsors, who help us produce valuable content every month.

If you or someone you know is interested in supporting this program, more information is available at (915) 533-0940 or at EP med SLC at aol.com.

Thank you again and we hope you enjoy this program.

Presented by the El Paso County Medical Society and hosted by Kathrin Berg.

The RotaCare Medical Clinic is a nonprofit medical clinic dedicated to providing free, high quality health care and health education to any member of the community, while at the same time training future generations of health care providers.

They provide in-house primary care, lab work and access to specialists.

There's also a social worker on hand all the time.

During the next hour, we have a part of the medical team of the RotaCare Clinic introducing what they do every single week.

This evening's program is underwritten by Doctor Richard McCallum, and we also want to thank the El Paso County Medical Society for providing this program to you.

I'm Kathrin Berg, and this is the El Paso physician.

Neither the El Paso County Medical Society, its members, nor PBS El Paso shall be responsible for the views, opinions or facts expressed by the panelists on this television program.

Please consult your doctor.

Thanks again for joining us.

Tonight we're going to be talking about the RotaCare El Paso medical clinic.

Rotary El Paso started that several years back.

And we have we have two founding members of that clinic here and, two people who know where the bones are buried.

So this is going to be a lot of fun that we're going to be talking about this evening.

Doctor Richard McCallum is the medical director of the RotaCare clinic.

But he is also professor of Texas Tech and also the founding chair of internal medicine at Texas Tech from 2009.

Thank you so much for being here.

And I remember when, my goodness, I'm in the Rotary Club that put together this clinic.

I remember how much work and how much enthusiasm you had with putting all this together.

Thank you so much for being here.

We also have Betty Gallegos, who is the acting nurse manager, and it's from day one.

Do I remember that right?

Or am I saying that wrong from day one as well?

And again RotaCare opened up September 13th of 2014.

And, I can't remember a time that you weren't hanging around.

I know you retired for five minutes, sort of stayed on the board and then came back.

So thank you for that.

We also have, Fabiola Ramirez here, who is the medical student lead currently.

Also, you are in your last year of residency, so we hope that you come back as like a real, real doc.

And you also for a while, were the intern nurse manager at RotaCare.

So thank you for being here.

And then we have the ageless Jon Pierson.

So John Pierson that's Jon Pierson, he is the assistant medical director and he is a graduate of the Paul L. Foster Texas Tech School of Medicine.

So thank you so much for being here.

And I love speaking about the clinic this evening, because it is the one place that people in our community can go where they do not get charged and stuff that has to be charged, like imaging and specialties.

There is a person on board, a social worker, that helps find the affordable ness of that, or whoever is coming.

So I cannot thank you enough for doing this.

What I'd like to do.

Doctor McCallum, just because you're the you're the beginning of everything.

What what and how can you describe other than the opening here of what the RotaCare clinic is?

And why do we have it here in El Paso?

Well, you've done your homework as usual.

Can tell you're pretty much up to speed.

But let me give you the short answer.

So when I came here in 2009 as the founding chair at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center with Doctor de la Rosa, who was the dean, we were approached by rotary, the downtown Rotary Club, who were in a competition mode.

They had projects that each member was proposing to be funded, and their model called Rota Care, which comes from a clinic in San Francisco Bay area and in Seattle, where they did see patients in a voluntary mode but did not have medical students and was actually, manned by, physicians who would pay.

So eventually, the RotaCare Clinic nomination, if you like, won the prize.

And so we were I was approached by the head of rotary at that time to consider coming down to the RotaCare Clinic and bringing medical students that was new.

Teaching medical students was not part of the blueprint.

It had been previously done around the country.

So it really is now, as it was then, looking after poor patients with no money, no insurance and usually in poor shape regarding their medical status and at the same time a chance to bring in first and second year medical students for the first time in their lives.

They just got the white coat ceremony.

They'd just been anointed all of a sudden there sitting in the clinic with a patient for the first time in their lives, we give them 15 or 20 minutes to sum up the situation.

And then they had ten minutes of advising decisions.

I took a piece and I was coming.

Go over the case, examine the patient, elicit any new findings, and discussed the care and management.

So with with training the future medical.

Many physicians in this country, including Fabiola who was a first class graduate and at the same time treating the poor patient in this county in the city.

And we're doing what we would in medicine, you know, Hippocratic oath way back in some cases to help patients.

And this is a reminder to our students, this is your future helping patients who this time, you in really basic written by this stuff.

Free clinic in El Paso where patients have not had medical care and have no money.

So that that in a, you know, sort of some reform is how we all got started, but it's evolved from there.

And I'm sure a lot of peers and others will elaborate on how much better.

Of course, it can't.

And this is, I think, a great transition for Fabiola for a moment, because I have to say that there's not been many times when we get to have medical students on this program, and when we do, you guys always blow me away.

I remember we were doing the Texas Tech Willed Body program, and the main person on was a student and talked to us about the respect that is given to the person who was on the table, who willed their body, to science.

And a couple of other times we had a student here, and there's just so much heart.

And I think with the Texas Tech Paul L. Foster School of Medicine, I feel that that is and I think we've talked about this.

So that is actually part of the curriculum, part of the social work that we're going to speak about in a little bit.

Part of the curriculum is not just the medicine, it is treating the entire person.

And sometimes a person's families that are with that.

So, my question to you, Fabiola, is when did you start hanging out at the RotaCare clinic, which then led you to be the lead student, etc.?

Yeah, so I started volunteering as a second year medical student.

Wow.

As Dr. McCallum mentioned, first and second year medical students.

We don't get a lot of clinical exposure.

That all starts maybe third or fourth year.

So that is a very unique opportunity.

And I was just eager to get involved with the community and to have that 1 to 1 interaction with patients.

But for me, the opportunity to volunteer at RotaCare has been so meaningful.

It's been a crucial part of my education.

And not only, like I said, do we get to volunteer as first and second year medical students, We also learn about the community.

We learn to appreciate the patient's cultural background.

And we learn to practice in a resource limited setting.

So that and--say that again, because we're going to talk a lot about that this evening.

You're in a resource limited setting.

Yes.

So expand on that So talk about your limited resources.

Right.

So because we depend on donations.

We do everything we can to help our patients.

So that they don't have to pay anything out of pocket.

So that includes paying for labs.

Even though we get those labs that are reduced rate it's still a cost.

We do everything possible to have a social worker at all times, which is great.

She's, she's available to our patients every Saturday.

And so that all comes with a cost.

And so at the same time, when you're practicing in a hospital setting, you're used to ordering stuff without thinking about the repercussions financially to the patient.

Right.

The clinic, we start to take a second and we say, okay, how much is this medication going to cost my patient?

How much of this imaging this X-ray will cost our patients?

Just taking that moment to think about the cost to the patient, helps us think critically.

Right.

And I feel become better physicians.

So it's a very unique opportunity.

And I'm just very grateful that I had that opportunity.

And, of course, as the year progressed, I became more and more involved.

And then eventually became the, student liaison.

And Doctor Pierson, said before we started and sometimes I like using our conversation prior to going on air is like, you know, she just needs to come back, you know, so when you do your last year and you do everything you need to do come back.

Because obviously I can see that the patients really like it too.

And, Betty, when you guys are at the door, you guys are in love with each other.

I love that, so, Betty, I think this is a great time to bring you in to, I don't know, RotaCare without you.

And so, again, in your 16-17, I was the president of that particular downtown Rotary Club.

And the contest you're talking about, doctor McCallum.

We were having our centennial.

We had to find a huge centennial project because that Rotary Club was turning 100 years old, and we needed to make a splash.

And so there are other Rota Care clinics around the country.

And this is what really solidified why we want to do this.

We have a medical school here again.

Medical school now, ten years later is a lot different than it was in 2014 when it opened up.

So there is everything in the right place at the right time.

And then there's Betty, you you see Betty, you hear Betty, you go down and you volunteer, you bring donuts and there's Betty, and she's just like you did earlier today.

If you guys were here, it was great.

I said, hey, look over my papers.

Make sure I have everything right.

And very quietly, Betty gets up, takes my pen.

Hold on.

Let me find process this out.

This is wrong.

Do this.

It's just I love everything about you because you do not let anything go.

That isn't right.

On that note, when we were putting together RotaCare clinic, it was going to be a 501 C3, which means a nonprofit.

It is something that there's no desire ever to make a profit.

And the hard thing, too, is there's the application process for grants.

If you're a 501 C3, you can now apply for federal grants, state grants, private foundations, etc.. How was that process thought about in the very beginning, or was that a model of other RotaCare clinics in the country?

Do you remember at that at that time?

Well, I was like the last person on board.

No you weren't, no, you probably were, but I just can't remember anything without you.

And we opened in September.

Okay.

Really around with the planning.

Okay.

But since then, I have learned Yes.

Other RotaCare Entities in the Bay area, there are ten clinics in the Bay area.

Okay.

And their executive director.

Yes.

They do apply for grants.

They do have donations from different rotary clubs in that area.

I don't know if they apply for federal grants.

We have not.

Okay.

We have applied for private grants and have gotten some, but primarily our, our operating expenses are from donations from the community, from rotary clubs, from people on the board, from people who care about us.

There was a lady, I don't remember the name, who sent she.

You know how her husband, I believe, was a Rotarian.

And for almost a full year, they send $100 a month.

To the clinic that I would get from the mailbox and I would take to our treasurer, you know, here you go.

so-- I'm getting, you know, what I'm going to add right now since you're saying that and it it's actually a note on these, this piece of paper, I'm going to tell you all what the address is, just in case you have a checkbook by you.

And we never do this.

This is not what we do.

But this is a very special cause.

But again, the RotaCare clinic is at 301 South Schutz, and that's spelled s c h u t z.

And the zip code is 79907.

So again, RotaCare Clinic 301 South Schutz S C H U T Z, 79907 and just out of curiosity, you kinda wrote on there the El Paso Physician show would you see if there's any and literally 20 bucks five bucks, 100 bucks here and there.

It all makes a difference.

And I think on here too, I read that it's $125 mas y menos.

When a patient gets seen.

Is that correct?

Okay.

And see, Doctor Pierson, I'd now get to bring you into the fold, you know.

So, going from there.

So you are the assistant medical director, and going forward and trying to figure out how to ask this question without begging for money, but begging for money and trying to get as many patients seen per week because you have people you opened up at, what, eight in the morning, but you have people lining up starting at 5 a.m.. Yeah.

And so talk about that scenario just of how everyone really wants to come in.

Okay.

Yeah.

So probably one of our biggest challenges right now, you know, when we talk to our patients is that sometimes there's a wait.

We're a first come, first serve.

So, you know, people start getting there really early.

I typically get to the clinic about 7:30.

We're supposed to open up at eight and then start seeing patients about 8:30, 9:00.

But a lot of times we'll have patients that'll come in.

They're coming just for lab reviews or something like that.

And so we'll try to get them get them through pretty quick.

First thing in the morning.

But our biggest challenge is from the clinic standpoint is sometimes there's a little bit of a wait.

Okay.

We've explored, being open on an additional day, so we're we're open every Saturday.

We have, explored.

And so for the last month, we were open on a Wednesday evening as well.

And we saw about 30 patients in two days, on Wednesdays.

And so, yeah, so, so patients get their early, first come, first serve.

We don't turn anybody away.

We try to, see anybody that's critical first.

I mean, it's like any medical facility, anything that comes in with something really critical, we'll try to fast track them through, which we're trying now to, separate streams so that we can separate people that actually need an exam and people that don't need an exam.

So we can try and then, you know, you know, alleviate that, that bottleneck.

Right.

But, I want to add something also.

Yeah, please, to the finance.

I think one thing in in which we're, we need we're unique is not only are we a nonprofit organization, but for the most part, nobody gets paid, you know?

Right.

You can have a nonprofit organization in which all of the members of the organization get paid.

They just don't make a profit.

Within our organization, every doctor that we have is a volunteer.

All of the students are volunteers.

We have a few paid positions.

The social worker, we we she does it for essentially free, but we.

Yeah, we do have a few things.

So that's one of our costs.

But that's one of the ways that we try to, to lower the cost.

The primary, expense that we have is the, the laboratory tests that we, that we have.

Right.

And some utilities, the church provides us with the building for essentially nothing.

I think we pay 5 or $10 a year or something like that and something nice.

So that's essentially free, you know.

So.

So, you know, we're kind of the scrappy clinic, we the scrappy clinic with heart though.

Gosh.

Yeah.

And how we function is, you know, primarily, all of the, the, you know, the salaries are free because everyone's a volunteer.

We get a lot of donations.

So, any anybody that has medical equipment that we may need, they can call or send us an email or something.

We can always do.

And I read to that everybody who is providing their work for free, they're volunteering.

Every single one of those people also gives money to the clinic.

So even the medical students and the doctors who are working there for free are also giving money to the clinic.

So Board of directors has agreed that every member of the board will donate to the clinic, in addition to the time that they donate to run it.

Very nice.

And Betty, you had something, you were going to jump in and say something.

If not, I may have seen this one on site.

Okay.

It was it was all about the cost of building.

That makes sense.

Absolutely right.

I actually think it's a yeah.

And I will throw this out there too, because I know that there are several people in the club that I belong to in rotary that did provide medical equipment that, you know, either it was something that was a little bit older but still in fantastic condition.

I know that there were some medical beds that were provided.

And in general, if there's anyone that that has access to equipment.

The nice thing about this program now is that it's access.

And I say this in the, in the beginning and the end of the show as well.

kcostv.org has it.

You can access it anytime.

YouTube.

You can access at any time.

And El Paso County Medical Society website, you can access it anytime.

So if you guys want to send this program to someone, it could also be a calling card of saying, hey, this is what we're doing to again, if you want to apply for a grant or just if you're looking at private companies and or foundations, you can do that as well.

So use this.

And I think that's going to be a great calling card for this going through too.

Yeah.

Doctor McCallum?

-One thing on is the fact that we've evolved and, I got this to remind myself, so I don't miss anyone-we developed subspecialties.

So when a patient comes with a problem, you know, we, gastroenterologist or internist, dermatologist we can't cover every base.

Well, we actually admit that, so we have some, some specialists in covering here.

Ophthalmology.

We're doing retinal screening, which is unique psychiatry looking after, post-Covid world around us and other things that cause stress.

She's taken care of that.

I'm looking at gastroenterology.

We have a dermatology colleague.

And thanks to Fabiola's connections, we do papsmears and GYN exams, orthopedics.

We we help with, patients with, an orthopedic doctor Oh, doctor Mansfield.

Yeah.

Covers the covers, the Chihuahuas and UTEP Yeah.

Infectious disease options.

And, more recently we've teamed up with, MD Anderson to look at, papillomavirus, which is a major cause of cervical cancer in women and head neck cancer.

We hope people come in.

And in addition, we have timely vaccination drives and, health fairs to try to reach out to our community.

So we've tried to evolve and grow and but to do that, it does take support.

And that's why, Doctor Pierson and you have harped on the fact that we would like to make sure our audience understands how important it is to try to give us some support to sustain our work.

And I love that this is a it's a clinic that is almost in a neighborhood, but it really is for everyone in this region.

And that's what's something I want to stress as well that anywhere that you come from, you can be seen in this clinic, which is super important.

And when you were talking about these specialties, I'd love to expand a little bit more on MD Anderson.

And just sometimes it's nice for the audience to know how some of these, these partnerships come to being.

So we have someone now, and there is an obvious they should be screened for a certain type of cancer or it's an obvious cancer diagnosis.

And so then what?

And maybe we can bring in the social worker patient navigator, if you will, of what you do now somebody comes in your clinic, someone who's not been to any doctor yet regarding a cancer that they have.

How did MD Anderson get get involved and how did that partnership start?

- -Well they approached us.

Okay, nice.

They wanted to start vaccinating, they begin at age 16, very young.

They want to do this.

It's young people -- 9 to 26.

Yeah.

And now it's growing into older patients.

But they came to us.

Do you have a a predictable volume?

If we brought vaccines down could you vaccinate?

And so after negotiating in time, we made that marriage.

And they've given us vaccines, and we're now trying to reach out to our community and notify them that they should bring their children in and themselves, and then get vaccine.

And this is the HPV vaccine specifically?

Okay.

And then it kind of just goes from there.

Well, for that, you know, breast exams, we we do use the Baptist clinic.

We don't have, mamograms at our clinic for colon cancer screening.

We do fecal labs We obviously move on to Texas Tech and get a discounted colonoscopy Which is you just did colon cancer awareness month.

So you're familiar with that.

So yes we we try to do prevention as well.

And when it has here mobile health screenings, is that what you were talking about with other mobile units.

And does the mobile unit go to the clinic?

Or does that mobile unit go to different areas for different screenings or my hearing that differently?

We don't have a mobile.

Okay, I'm a gram thing okay.

But I would add one more thing.

Yeah I just met with the dental school people.

Oh, fabulous.

Okay.

Having a dental school connection.

Nice.

And will come down and examine our patients and select some to go to the dental clinic.

Thats Texas Tech That's a major development.

And I think I don't know which show we talked about.

We talked about it on a gastro shows.

And there are so many things that you can find.

In the oral cavity.

And unless you have normal checkups, I had a polyp on my tonsil that needed to be removed.

But who found it?

The lady who was who was cleaning my teeth at my dentist office, you know.

So that is so important.

I think some people don't realize, what a dental checkup can do.

There's a lot being checked Mine goes through my throat and my thyroid and everything else.

So I always feel very, very checked over when I go to the dentist.

I love everything about that.

I would love to talk about again, the social worker, because, I think that there are-clinics are a place that people go when they haven't gone to the doctor for the most part.

And, and maybe Fabiola, you can throw yourself in in this to how how is it that a patient there has never gone to a doctor before when they come into the clinic, and this is the first time, like, I've got something wrong.

What is usually that type of interaction?

And I know you're one of the medical students.

I know that we try to get medical students out there every Saturday and every weekend, and sometimes on Wednesdays you were talking about, but kind of walk us through some of those conversations like they see you for the first time, you see them for the first time.

There's, you know, a little bit of awkwardness, hesitancy, now what?

And walk us through some of that.

And, Betty, I'm going to ask you the same thing.

So, thank you for that question.

I, you know, our patients, when they walk in through the door, they come in with a variety of barriers to care.

And so we have work here, and I'm really proud to say this.

As students, we become really good at highlighting or basically finding by talking to the patient, what these barriers to care are, what these, what we call social determinants of health.

And so we are able to, not only find these barriers to care, but do something about them and that's where the social worker comes in.

Right?

So, we make our patients feel very comfortable.

We basically, try to establish that connection early on.

We don't only address their physical ailments, but like I said, we also take into account everything else that they bring in, with them.

And so that's where we make that connection with the social worker and eventually find ways to connect them with other community resources.

So I think that the fact that we take the time to talk to the patient, whereas in a regular clinic they might get ten, maybe 15 minutes with the physician.

We take sometimes up to 30 minutes just talking to the patient about again, not just their physical concerns, but also everything else going on in their lives.

And I think that's very unique to.

Yeah.

Our patients really like that.

That's the type of care they get.

That's right I can, I can throw in a good example Yeah.

Please.

Doctor Pierson?

-Just from I guess as you know, in the last couple of months, we had a patient that came in, hadn't been to see the doctor in years, so she came in.

When a new patient comes in, we do a basic set of labs.

We do all this, the standard screenings and things.

And so labs from the get go or something, that's almost automatic when they come For the most part.

So you can get a baseline and everything's in there certain lab.

Excellent.

Okay.

And the, the standard labs is a function of their age.

And you know, different things like that.

You know, it's it's kind of high value labs that will kind of give us an indication of, you know, various things, whether or not they may have diabetes or you know, high cholesterol or, you know, things.

And so everybody gets kind of the standard labs and and then you know, based on their age and situation, there'll be certain screenings that we'll want to do.

And so one of them that that Doctor McCallum mentioned was the, the occult blood, it's the fecal- FIT test.

And so we had a patient that came in.

She hadn't been in for a while, probably several years.

So we did all the basic tests and we also did a fit on her and then usually what we do with patients is we will call them if there's something, if they want to come back and review the results, we can review them with them, or we can review them over the phone.

Or if there's something that is substantially concerning, then we will call them and have them come in.

Okay.

Gotcha.

And so this patient had, you know, was very concerning.

And so her FIT came back positive.

So that means she needs a colonoscopy.

And she had some other concerning, lab tests that came in.

And so she came back, the students, you know, talk to her.

And basically they said, okay, well she declined.

She didn't want to have a colonoscopy.

And so she left.

So and this is where where our clinic is unique.

And so the medical students, we have a, a telemedicine type thing where we actually call the patients, we talk to them over the phone And so the students called her up and we're talking with her about what the problems were and, and whether she understood the lab tests and stuff.

And, and she said, yes, she did.

She wasn't she didn't want to get a colonoscopy.

So they said, we would like you to come back and speak again with the doctor.

And that that was me.

So she came back in and I went in and talked to her about her labs, and I expressed to her that we had some concern and we, you know, and we discussed, you know, the possibility of having colon cancer and, and treatment options and things like that.

And she was just like, no, no, no, no, I really don't want to do it.

So so I was defeated.

So I got doctor McCallum involved because--I was going to say.

because I'm like, you need to at least speak with a GI expert Talk to you.

And it turns out that she didn't want to burden her family.

And she didn't realize that she qualified for Medicare.

Oh and again this is where the communication comes.

She wouldn't even talk with the social worker initially, but doctor McCallum got in there and started talking to her and explaining things.

And once this happened, you know, she was like, oh, this isn't going to cost my family thousands of dollars.

And then, okay, well then, yeah, I could be interested.

Yeah.

And so doctor McCallum and the social worker got together and, got with Texas Tech and figured out what program she'd get in.

We got her.

We walked her through how to apply for Medicare and what that would take.

And, you know, I don't know because it was recently, but she's now in the process of going forward to see whether or not this is something serious or whether or not it's something that's not so serious.

You know, doctor McCallum, this is your time to get on, you know, the horse and say, this is the one cancer that is preventable of caught on time.

Right?

And we did colonoscopy last month.

Fine.

But I feel like it's always worth saying.

So also emphasizing is, you know, we're seeing patients diabetes for the first time hypertension.

We're trying to prevent serious complications.

We're trying to prevent emergency room visits, reduce the health care costs and carry out prevention.

Right.

You know on the front line.

And we see endless amounts of diabetes high blood pressure high cholesterol obesity.

We try to institute programs to start to treat that.

We're trying to overcome dropping into the eyes which cost you a lot of money just to be seen.

We're trying to help really identify problems early in these patients who have never been seen.

and never heard diabetes so.

Which is a lifesaving and very advanced in many cases.

Yeah.

And so going back to that point of earlier, if they've never gone to the doctor there's something that's bringing them to the clinic which means they are feeling that something is wrong.

But what I love about this too, just reading through this is that there's a lot of prevention that's here.

And my question is, and Doctor Pierson, you had a point that this person that came in for labs had been there before, but it hadn't been, you know, four or 5 or 6 years.

And I don't expect a real number.

But how many people are not regulars?

That's the wrong word.

I don't know what word I'm looking for, but kind of know to come like once every two years just to kind of get things checked out.

Are there some that are kind of in the system?

Yeah.

That's okay.

So me take it from there because again, you've been there from the get go.

And this is and I remember too like starting to enter information was also that was a lot of work too, in the beginning to try to get that system to probably where it is now.

And I feel like they're never perfect.

But talk about that aspect of the clinic Well the original plan for the clinic was for patients to come in and be seen, and then for our social worker to be able to help them transition to a primary care physician.

Well, that's not super realistic.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Because we do some of that.

Okay.

That's our it's still our motivation.

Thats true.

If we can get that in there.

But we have patients who come back and come back okay.

And come back because we provide this high quality care and they love the students and the doctors that we have, the caring that we show.

Yeah.

To people in the clinic.

And so they come back because they love us.

And to your point to the end you what do we say.

Scrappy but scrappy with heart.

I think the students man in in part of it is El Paso.

I just feel like.

Are you from El Paso.

Yes.

I was hoping that she better be from El Paso, because this is just going to go nowhere.

But there is.

We have us.

We have a heart here that I think many other places don't.

And doctor McCallum, going back to what you were saying, there wasn't really a medical student model in the other Rota cares around the country.

This is the this is like the place to start.

We're still the only one.

We're still the only RotaCare clinic that that utilizes medical students.

What what a waste for everybody else.

Yes, doctor McCallum?

Bilingual nature is really important.

Fabiola Is a good example.

How medical students are immersed in Spanish before they start school for a couple of months.

So they're down there in the clinic, conversing with Hispanic patients very comfortably.

And then that makes I think the families feel better.

We're trying to, you know, meet them halfway and trying to understand their problem.

So I think the bilingual component.

We have interpreters too.

We have students from UTEP who are pre-med coming in and helping us.

Do vital signs register patients.

And so we are providing the future new students who want to go to medical school.

And we, we hear about them every year who have evolved from the UTEP student pool.

But the bilingual nature is an asset.

Yeah I bet it is.

So here's a question for people who are listening and watching that don't have any kind of a medical background.

But they'd like to help.

And let's say they don't have enough money to give.

So I've heard you I'm thinking intake registration.

It would be great to have a medical student there, but do you just need sometimes extra bodies?

Bodies with a heart, so to speak?

That can help out on Saturdays.

And I do want to expand a little bit more on you talked a little bit about Wednesdays.

And I want to expand on telehealth too.

But in general, since we're here, can people help on Saturdays?

Would it be best to call the clinic to find out if you would qualify for lack of better of what?

So.

Right.

Right now, this the last year or so, we've been really lucky.

We've been very successful in, expanding the I guess scope for RotaCare within the, within the student population.

And so right now we have lots of students.

Oh good good good good.

Okay.

Lots of volunteers.

So we've been, you know, very blessed in, in having people.

Recently, you know, we went through a, a phase a few years ago where, we were, short of physicians.

Recently we've had a number of physicians that have that have signed on.

And, you know, usually physicians will, you know, agree to maybe one, one Saturday a month or something like that, or on Saturday every two months or something like that.

And so we're doing pretty good right now with that.

We're constantly looking, for new people, primarily we need, you know, physicians, new licensed physicians.

We need to have at least one, in there to oversee the students.

But in terms of people, we're doing pretty good.

Okay.

Now, this year, we've gotten a lot more involved in doing health fairs.

As Dr. McCallum mentioned, we're doing the vaccination drives, we did an influenza drive, We're doing the HPV drive.

And we've done those in conjunction with some and some other organizations.

So the Medical Reserve Corps has been involved in some of that.

And, and so a lot of times when we do those, we can use people.

It's usually a bigger, a bigger event.

Sometimes it's in our parking lot, sometimes we go to other, health fairs.

And so sometimes we can use people.

And how do we throw the word out there for that?

Because I'm trying to think to.

It's like everything's so different.

Like when we started, you know, social media wasn't so good as social media.

Yeah.

So we we are on Facebook.

We have Instagram.

Okay.

And, we do, at least I think 1 or 2 posts a week, typically we take some pictures around the clinic on Saturdays, and we post that any time a special events.

And so our, psychiatrist, is, is about is expecting and, so we, threw a baby shower at the clinic.

Oh.

Very nice.

That that we had posted on our own.

Okay.

See, this is where the family element comes in.

Oh my goodness.

The best way to to to describe this clinic is a family.

Yeah, it really is.

You know, I was a student at Paul Foster.

I actually volunteered a few times at the clinic when I was a student.

And then, I came back to, to, you know, give back and to be a part of it.

For me, it was really just to be a part of it.

Yeah, I enjoyed it.

You know, as you mentioned, doctor, McCallum, Betty had been there since the beginning Well, I was just saying to.

And Betty walked in.

We had, I can't even remember when that RotaCare clinic gala was.

But years and years ago.

And there's a photo of, like, Well, there you go.

2016.

So that's that's nine years ago.

And the second I looked at you, it's like you look exactly the same, I think.

Yeah I remember.

And I'll, I guess I will say the name.

So we had a student, Jake Wilson, in there.

Michael.

Ella.

So I'm just thinking I'm just going back to all these students.

Now, if they were, Fabiola would be in there.

But if I saw them tomorrow, you're just like, hey, what's going on?

It's just.

It is so heartfelt.

It's not even funny.

What I.

Yes, doctor McCallum?

Oh, good.

Good.

Wilson's doing a GI fellowship in Charleston.

In Charleston?

That's right.

Okay.

Charleston.

And, I'll send him a link to the show.

He'd be tickled that we're talking about him.

Jerry ---- Met his future bride Jennifer Nelson at the clinic.

He was courting her between patients, and then he went in to Texas A&M.

And he's now a faculty cardiologist, and she's a pediatrician, right?

Yes.

She does.

Yeah.

So, yeah, the it's really nice to have the community.

But I also would mention The El Paso County Medical Society Students who's leaders in the El Paso County Medical Society who go to Austin go to the to stay at the Capitol and those things.

They're also in health clinic.

So we've had very nice support from from Patsy Slaughter and her team in in making sure our clinics are well publicized.

Yeah I love that too.

And we'll just do a shout out right now.

The show has been running for 28 years under the El Paso County Medical Society.

Absolutely amazing.

And they're the ones that put it all together.

Shout out to Patsy, to Patsy, and Elsa out there We're told to not say anything, but, Doctor Pierson, I would like to talk a little bit again and I don't know if telemedicine really started or became a big thing during Covid, but I would think also because, you talked about the lack of resources earlier, right?

That there's not enough money to be open every day.

And when there is a little bit of money, maybe there's a little bit of being open on Wednesdays.

But for the most part, if someone really has an issue on Tuesday, would they have to wait till Saturday or telehealth?

Is there a phone number that they can call at this point?

And I didn't ask about this ahead of time, and I should have.

My apologies if I'm just throwing that out there and I shouldn't.

No no, no.

But how would that work?

So our telehealth probably doesn't fit under the, technical definition of telehealth Okay.

We call it that.

But really, what it is is, is more it's, most of it is, is like an outreach.

And so, it is us, calling up patients and letting them know that we have some concern.

A lot of times it has to do with labs.

We'll get, you know, typically we get labs back a day or two after, they, they come into the clinic.

And if we have some concern over that, then we'll call them up.

If it's a if it's something that can't wait till Saturday, you know, we'll call them up and say, you know, you need to you need to have this checked out.

And we'll talk to them over the phone if that's appropriate.

You know typically we will call them up, you know, like sometimes we'll have somebody that will have, you know, really high cholesterol.

We had one not, you know, recently that had insanely high cholesterol.

And we just told them, we said, you know, we screened them over the phone whether or not he was having any symptoms and, and things.

And then we told them what, you know, what to look out for and then come in on Saturday.

And so we do that.

We, we actually follow up with patients over the phone.

So a lot of times if we have a patient that we, you know, starting the new, treatment for something, we'll call them up and say, how's that working for you?

A lot of medications have side effects, right?

And we'll talk to the patients about the side effects, but then we'll call them up usually a couple of days after that and say, you know, how's that working?

You know, were you able to get the medication?

A lot of times, you know, one thing we found was a lot of patients we had prescribed medications for, and they would go off and they wouldn't fill it.

Sometimes it would be for a financial reason.

Sometimes it would just be.

They're like, you know, I feel healthy.

I don't need this medication.

And so we'll call them up and just check in and say, you know, were you able to get your medication.

Is it is, you know, how's it working.

And then we'll ask and how are you taking it.

Because you know, a lot of times people get confused over how they're supposed to take their medication.

So that's that's mainly how we use the, the our telehealth.

Right.

It's just, you know, calling up the patients.

You know, we, we try to, you know, we go through and review the charts and we usually go back a couple of months and look at the charts and make sure that, you know, we'll have students that will read through the notes.

And if the note says, you know, we need to see this patient in two months, and then we look up what's been, you know, two and a half months, we haven't seen them, we'll call them up and we'll say, you know, the doctor wanted to see you back.

You know, this is better than than many honestly, internists and I shouldn't in a lot of not throwing shade on anyone.

But that that is really a beautiful thing in a lot.

We we do.

You know, we are very proactive getting back to Fabiola's point We have a challenge because of the finances.

But it also in a lot of cases forces us to be better doctors.

We have to make better decisions.

You know, when I work in the hospital, you know, you'll just order all the labs and you just.

And sometimes that really confuses the situation.

And in ours, we are back to, like, kind of old school where you let the symptoms drive, you know, symptoms, symptoms drive you in the direction that you want to go in.

And you make better decisions on lab tests.

Right.

Because you know, sometimes you have a test that will tell you just a tiny bit of information and may cost 3 or $400.

Right.

So, you know, we so it challenges the physicians and it challenges the students to think through, you know, the tests.

And it's like, is that test really critical for this decision.

Exactly.

And to yourself a better doctor.

Betty?

Yes.

So when patients call in to our number 9157900700, they leave a message.

It comes to the computer that the nurse manager has.

Oh nice.

Okay.

We look at those and answer those and call those patients back to see what has happened.

Okay, so if it were an emergency, then the nurse manager, we're not doctors were nurses, but we write what the patient says, and what their concern is, if they could be.

It's something that could wait until Saturday.

We explain a lot of times patients want to make an appointment we don't make appointments It's first come first served But if it's something that's critical, you need to go to an urgent care and you need to go to an emergency room.

This is something that you don't want to sit on.

And that's where the navigation comes in.

I feel like that is so.

And you were talking Doctor Pierson, the proactive-ness in this, right?

The navigation when you don't really know what to do.

If this is a situation you've never faced before and it's it's paralysis.

Right.

There's analysis paralysis that's happening.

But if there's someone calling you saying this is what you need to do, this is where you need to go.

This is how it's going to look.

This is what they're probably going to ask.

That part of it is so crucial.

And that's why I was so impressed earlier when I was reading through this about the social worker that's there that probably is a social worker on steroids.

You know, you you can imagine just all these different directions that you're trying to put these people in there.

And the social worker has the network, they have the information from Texas Tech and UMC.

So they know the tricks.

He knows all the tricks.

Nice.

Grace, our social worker.

Thank you.

Grace.

Yeah.

Amen.

Yeah.

Amen.

There you go.

I would put in before we get too late.

You know, I told the medical students every Saturday You know this.

This is why you went into medicine, to help patients.

And one day when you're doing well and 30 years later, you'll think back to where it all started.

I got my white coat, I saw my first patients here in the RotaCare clinic, and I saw patients who had bread and butter medical problems that were never diagnosed.

And I started treating them and I prevented a complication.

I improved their life.

And I think those memories and that commitment can't be overemphasized.

Very, very important situation.

Agreed.

That makes sense.

Yes, Doctor Pierson and one of the interesting things the way they're clinic works is.

So, the doctor's a volunteer there.

You know, a lot of them are in subspecialties.

One of the things that we've what we've been doing is we do what it's kind of called like an internal referral.

Right.

So if patients come in and we see them and we determine that they really need to be seen by a specialist.

They have a rash.

They need to see a dermatologist.

But it's not.

It's not an emergency situation.

Then what we'll do is we put their name on a list.

And then we organize that list.

So the next time that specialist comes in, We will call those patients up and then they get priority seen by that physician.

And then if we get through that list, then he'll see other patients.

And I'm going to go through that, that list again which I love.

So it's ophthalmology psychiatry gastroenterology, dermatology ObGyn, orthopedics and infectious diseases.

So that's what I have here now is the specialties, which covers a lot.

And so I think that's that's fantastic.

And so we try and we try to do that route first and then.

But if it's more critical that's when we really get the social work involved because we try to provide as much stuff, those who possibly can for no cost to the patient.

So if we do an internal referral then that's not going to cost them any extra right.

Unless they need to have imaging or something like that.

But to see that, to actually see the specialist, if it's not, if it's not an emergency, it' no cost to them.

They get to see that, to see that specialist.

Right.

If that's something that we don't feel like an internal specialist could handle or it's more time sensitive, then we explore sending them to Texas Tech or, you know, or in the worst case, we will refer them to, the emergency department, to, to get them seen.

Okay, so, Betty, I, I'm dying to ask you this question because, again, I feel like you are and have been, on the front line since the beginning.

I would just love to hear again.

Scrappy with a heart and I keep saying that, but I hope it I hope it doesn't stick, but I kind of love everything about it at the same time.

But some of the stories, some of the case studies without giving names or anything.

Is there a patient or 2 or 20, that sticks out in your head that you think, you know what, this is a case that we kind of followed or this is this is someone that we actually we saved their life.

Do you have anything any good?

I know I should think about.

Okay.

It's only been ten years.

Geez.

There are a couple that I can remember.

I do remember.

A patient who had.

A very low hemoglobin.

And labs came back, and and I was notified, and I notified the medical director, who at that time was Doctor Espinosa.

He said you need to contact this patient and she needs to go in and have a transfusion.

So I call no answer.

Wrong number or something.

I later on this was on a Sunday when I got the phone call.

I call the police to go out for a welfare check.

They didn't find her.

Two weeks later, she walks in to the clinic and says, I hear you were looking for me.

Oh.

Well, yeah, it's, Yes, you need to go.

But I remember her, and we.

There was another patient that we had that, there's a written letter on the wall in the conference room that he sent about how he appreciated the clinic, and that we listened to him and helped him take care of the problems that he had.

And, I think this was one of the halfway house patients when we were seeing them, you know, and, and that it just I mean, it's just amazing.

Do you see, I know we're ten years in at this point actually 11 years in and what I, and I know medical specifics are what we usually cover but with the clinic.

Where do you all see and or hope this, this scenario five years from now.

So the desire is having enough funding to maybe open twice a week.

And then going from there, maybe I saw somewhere I don't know if what was in this paperwork, moving locations or adding locations.

What's kind of in the in the future, or is that too scary of a proposal to ask about?--Well you know we are volunteering You know, we all have our jobs.

So I think the expansion could be to a couple of days a week.

When, when I did one Saturday, I think with a chronic you know, connections.

Now we can probably try to connect with our patients on a more communicative level and maybe do things without having to come into the clinic So, we may be doing more as a virtual, contact.

Increasing our subspecialties.

I think attracting, more students.

You know, we're the biggest clinic in the city, but I think we can take more students, because it's a crucial part of their training.

See, bread and butter medicine before it's really been diagnosed.

But, I think crucial to all of that is one sitting next to me also is reminded to have an audience.

Please think about helping us financially.

You know, we volunteer hundreds of hours and, we do need support to sustain activities.

There's no question about that.

And again, use this program.

Send this link to as many people as you can you think might be able to help.

And, Fabiola, I just I feel like you're that you're the young one in the group, going for.

So you have explain how that works for people, because we have a lot of medical students in our community, and sometimes we have no idea when we're shopping at, you know, Vista Market or whatever.

But you are going into your last year, your residency.

What does that mean?

And are you already picking your specialty when you're looking at the rural care clinic?

Has anything, inspired you?

Like, I'm going to go through this discipline and that discipline in general.

Give us your your thoughts on that as a medical student?

Yeah.

So I am a fourth year medical student going on to residency.

I've matched and I'm going into dermatology.

And of course, my experience really inspired me.

We are lacking a dermatologist in the city.

So we do see the patients that come in with pretty significant skin conditions that haven't been diagnosed.

They just haven't had access to a dermatologist in the past.

And so that has inspired me, and I hope to one day return to El Paso So after I finish my residency and volunteer at the clinic.

Well, okay.

Great.

There's a I call it that.

My kids make fun of me.

I have a lot of scoops taken out of me.

I was a lifeguard for many years, and it's like a scoop out here.

I stitch here, this and that and yeah, there are, so we definitely need that.

Right now, how is it that medical students are being sought after?

Is it done through the classes?

You're a professor at Texas Tech?

Is that something that you've got?

Here's our name and number up there.

How does that usually work?

We have a leadership transition in January each year.

And Fabiola, fill us in again how that evolves.

Yeah.

So we the clinic is well known within the students.

The volunteer spots are actually coveted spots because again, very nice.

Okay.

So there is a list of students that want to volunteer.

We send out an email every month, and basically first come first.

Right.

So whoever answers that email, we go through the list and we select those students in order to come to the clinic and volunteer.

And then, yearly transition of leadership.

We go through the process of, there's an application process.

And so we select a student leader, and then we also select, for example, a lab tech leader.

Somebody in the front desk to register patients.

So we have a couple of leadership spots, but it's a once in a once a year transition that we go through.

Very nice.

Yes.

In the very beginning, before Doctor Person was talking about this, the love that we had with students.

But in the beginning.

And now that if you don't answer that email within 5 to 10 minutes, you don't get a spot.

Oh it's done.

So exciting.

I love that.

That's great.

I'm going to throw out the number once again.

For those of you that didn't catch it earlier in that area, or if there is an issue and you need to get a message to the clinic, that telephone number is 7900700.

And also, if you want to make a donation, I'm going to put our I'm going to put Valeria and Emily on the spot here that maybe there will be a QR code on here where you can put your phone up against the screen that you see to do a donation.

And you can also send a check for donation to 301 South Schutz Street, and that's S C H U T Z The zip code is 79907 and if you want somebody else to see this program, or if you want to watch this program again, there are several places that you can do that.

You can use this as a calling card again, any time you want to say, hey, this is what they do.

Help them out.

kcostv.org You can go on there.

And again just look for the logo, El Paso Physician Also the county, El Paso County Medical Society, which is EPCMS.com and then also youtube.com.

And on any of those platforms just type in the El Paso Physician specifically, this, show is going to be called RotaCare Medical Clinic.

Or just think of RotaCare, R O T A C A R E But there's also, if you want to watch the colonoscopy show that we just did last month or any ailment.

I know Doctor Mansfield was mentioned earlier, we have orthopedic programs on that he's been a guest on.

So any element that you're looking for, you can find one of those platforms.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Kathrin Berg and this is the El Paso Physician.

The El Paso County Medical Society is a nonprofit organization established in 1898 that unites physicians to elevate the health of the El Paso community.

We have been bringing the El Paso Physician Television program to your home for the last 27 years on PBS El Paso.

If you should have any medical questions relating to this program, you may email us at EPMEDSOC@aol.com.

And we will try to have our experts answer your questions.