The New Freedmen's Clinic (first opened in the summer of 2009) is a free student-run health care

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

affiliated with

Howard University Hospital Howard University Hospital, previously known as Freedmen's Hospital, is a major hospital located in Washington, D.C., built on the site of Griffith Stadium, a former professional baseball stadium that served as the home field of the Washington ...

(HUH) and

Howard University College of Medicine The Howard University College of Medicine (HUCM) is an academic division of Howard University that grants the Doctor of Medicine (M.D.), Ph.D., M.S., and the M.PH. HUCM is located at the Howard University Health Sciences Center in Washington, D ...

(HUCM). It gets its name from HUH's original name - Freedmen's Hospital. It is currently located in the heart of

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

, within HUH.

Project organization

After attending a course in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

on how to organize student-run clinics, a third year student at Howard University College of Medicine found overwhelming support from both students and faculty for executing her plan to form a clinic that would be run by HUCM students. The students at the helm of the project visited area student-run clinics to observe their management and provide insight on the work needed to make their clinic a reality. Soon after, the students applied to the Association of American Medical Colleges for a grant and received one in the amount of $30,000, which went towards starting the clinic. That grant was supplemented by a large donation from the Howard University College of Medicine Alumni Foundation, a $25,000 award from the Gilead Foundation, and an astonishing $150,000 gift from an anonymous graduate of the College of Medicine's Class of 1941. Each clinic day, there are two teams of medical students supervised by a Howard University Hospital physician. The Clinic "treats patients by appointment and those referred to them by the Hospital's Emergency Department" While the clinic still accepts mainly adults, it now boasts a variety of screening tests, an expanding array of services, as well as a strong community outreach program to better address the needs of the underserved.

Mission

"The HUCM Student Run Free Clinic Project is dedicated to improving access to quality healthcare to the local community. While serving the underserved population, the clinic will also provide education humanistic medicine and social justice for medical student volunteers.""The New Freedmen's Clinic." 11 Aug 2009. <>

Clinic services

Primary care

* Physical Exams * Wellness Checkups * Non-urgent Care * Diagnostic Tests

Preventative care

* Colon cancer screening * Diabetes screening * EKG (for heart disease) * HIV screening * Hypertension screening * Kidney function test * Liver function test *

Pap smear The Papanicolaou test (abbreviated as Pap test, also known as Pap smear (AE), cervical smear (BE), cervical screening (BE), or smear test (BE)) is a method of cervical screening used to detect potentially precancerous and cancerous processes in ...

(women 21–65 years old are encouraged to get one about every three years) * Pregnancy tests * X-rays and more.

Mental health services

* Mental Health Disorders * Substance Abuse * Domestic Violence

Other services

* Social Services * Prescription Medications * Language Interpretation/Translation

References

External links

The New Freedmen's Clinic website

The Howard University Hilltop article

{{DEFAULTSORT:New Freedmen's Clinic Clinics in the United States Medical and health organizations based in Washington, D.C. Howard University 2009 establishments in Washington, D.C.