Donor Support Benefits Underserved Patients
Since opening its first free, acute-care clinic in 1991, the MEDiC Program — a student-run program managed through the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) — has partnered with a variety of community organizations. The program’s main goal is to expand health care access for underserved populations by offering four easily accessible clinics in the Madison, Wisconsin, area, while also giving UW–Madison medical students a chance to put their skills and training to use.
“MEDiC serves some of Madison’s most vulnerable patients — those experiencing homelessness, undocumented immigrants with no other options for care, patients who don’t speak English, and those facing mental health challenges,” shares Kristi Jones, director of community service programs at SMPH. “By making primary care and community program connections for these patients, we’re addressing a significant health equity and health care access issue.”
Over the last 32 years, this impactful program has been operating collaboratively with Badger learners from medicine, physician assistant, physical therapy, pharmacy, and nursing to help those in need of quality care. Much of the success of MEDiC is made possible through the benevolence of dedicated donors.
“Financial support from donors makes it possible for MEDiC to purchase medical supplies and an interpreter phone line needed to properly care for patients,” says Jones. “Donor generosity allows us to provide the highest-quality care to all patients.”
MEDiC was recently awarded the Bronze Seal of Excellence from the Wisconsin Association of Free and Charitable Clinics for meeting its standards of excellence, covering a wide range of matters from governance and administration to optimal access to care, quality improvement, and medication management. Keeping with those standards also involves delivering outstanding staff. Christine Seibert is the associate dean for medical student education and services at SMPH and a practicing internal medicine physician. She also serves as the medical director for MEDiC and the Madison-based Southside Clinic — the largest clinic in the student-run health system.
“We are a scrappy organization that relies on the amazing generosity of spirit of all of our volunteers and donors,” says Seibert. “Our patients are incredibly hard-working individuals who have fallen through the cracks in our health care system. We aim to provide them the highest quality of care we can while also trying to connect them with resources to support and promote their health and wellness, and donations go a long way to assist with that.”
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