I just finished a long week, working with a group of talented directors led by a marvelous woman with a vision as clear as can be - we divided the tasks and with the help of hundreds ofvolunteers we provided wonderful care to over 3,500 people in need. Over a four day period in the Key Arena in Seattle we provided dental, vision and medical care to people in need from our community. While it is free care, in terms of dollars, people began lining up at 11PM at night and waited until 3 AM when we began to give out numbers, until we reached the cap we felt we could serve in a 12 hour day.
At 6 AM we began letting people in the door, checked them in and escorted them to a preliminary triage station, where they were seen by volunteer nurses who took their vitals and discussed their needs for the day. Following that stop they were escorted to Medical, Dental or Vision for care by volunteer professionals. As the day went on people had teeth pulled, fillings completed, medical test done, glasses made. We moved people from station to station to get as much care as we could give them in a day.
At the end of the day we buttoned up, said good-day to our volunteers, met, discussed the day and planned for the next day, and did it again. Over four days we saw over 3,500 patients, had 1,400 unique volunteers who served over 25,000 hours of service.
While it was a great few days, and I am very proud of the work we did, it is also a little sad that we are at this point.
It is sad that in the world we rate #37 in care for our citizens, even with the implementation of Affordable Care Act, there are holes in the net. Dental is really not covered under ACA.
But the bright point is what can happen is for community's like Seattle come together to partner with an agency with experience in this field - Remote Area Medical (RAM) and make it happen. Not only lots of volunteers, but also many community partners; City, county, state, hospitals, private company's, students, suppliers, medical providers all came together to help our community members in need.
And this could not have happened without the community, so look into your community, what could you change? Okay now dream bigger!
Disaster_Dave
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