More pictures of the clinic!

I realized that there aren't many pictures on the blog of the clinic, so I wanted to post a few more on here today to you could see more of the environment where we work. The land the clinic is built on was donated by a man everyone calls "Murphy." He lives across the street and never comes out of his house, but he has the friendliest dog I've ever met if that counts for anything. In the front yard, the clinic has one of the only playgrounds that is on the island - there aren't any parks, but this is at least a jungle gym with swings where kids can play while they wait for their appointment.

The building used to be only 1 floor but a 2nd floor was added in the last 2 years. The second floor currently holds a birthing center that isn't in operation because there aren't enough full time doctors and nurses to staff it. In the mean time, the rooms are used by the gynecologist and also rented out to a psychologist. The psychologist comes from the mainland once a month - she is the only mental health care provider for the islanders, so if they need something related to mental health outside of her once monthly visit they have wait.

There is a room dedicated to dental supplies and procedures. There are two part-time dentists and a number of hygienists and  and assistants. They do simple procedures such as teeth cleanings and more complicated ones such as tooth extractions. Unfortunately they can not sedate patients so they aren't able to pull wisdom teeth, but they do have an X-ray machine! This is the only dental care available on the island.

There is also a pharmacy where all medications are dispensed. Hundreds of thousands of medications are dispensed each month - mostly children's vitamins, prenatal vitamins, and medications for hypertension. Any females over the age of 13 automatically get prenatal vitamins as teenage pregnancies here usually start around that age. There is currently a 4 million dollar donation from the World Health Organization of medications that has been donated to the clinic that is stuck in customs because the government is demanding an outlandish bribe that the clinic is refusing to pay.

Lastly, there are a number of rooms where the doctors, med students, and PA's see patients. There are approximately 75 patients a day - both adults and children. Island events and the weather will affect how busy the clinic is every day, but overall the flow is steady. The clinic sees 75% females and 25% males with a pretty even split between adults and children. There are often translators available to help as you will see in the bottom picture. The first floor has a waiting room (where patients have waited up to 5 hours to see a doctor), a triage room, 4 patient rooms and a laboratory. This is also where the dental room is.

Lastly, the upstairs also has 2 offices where the administrators and Miss Peggy can often be found working. This is also where staff meetings are often held. Volunteers can also work in these offices as well and use clinic computers for various tasks.

This concludes your virtual tour folks! More can also be seen on the website at www.clinicaesperanza.org.