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Typically, the IHS team will stay in Gracias each evening but will travel to small villages in the mountains each day to see patients. Gracias is a small city that has commercial power plus cell phone and other communications. For most of the time the IHS team is only there for morning and evening meals and as a place to sleep. They may travel to a different small village each work day to do their medical & dental clinic work. This requires packing all the needed supplies to take with them for that days work.
Once the IHS team and local workers arrive at the village, they must set up different work areas. That may include: registration & triage area, clinic exam areas, pharmacy work area, dental work area, a storage area for their day’s supplies, and sometimes a reading glasses work station. The communications person may have a cell phone if the village is in a coverage location.
The buildings they will use depends on what buildings the village has. They may have a small clinic but usually not and they then use a school building or something similar. It may happen that the team’s needed work area is large such that they may set up in more than one building. In most cases the Team Leader will delegate how each area is set up to the lead person in that area… the physician may be in charge of clinic & triage area, the dentist will be in charge of his or her dental area, the pharmacist will arrange the pharmacy, and a designated person will do the reading glasses station. The noon meal may be items the team brought with them or it may be that the local people will provide a meal. Each day when the patients are seen and the work is done, the team will pack up and return to Gracias. Below are more details about the typical work day in a village.
When the team arrives in the village, this is typically what they see… many patients waiting to see the doctor or dentist.
After unloading and setting up their supplies, the team gets started by registering the many patients to see the various care givers.
The registered patients then will see a provider… a doctor, nurse or dentist. Note there is often an interpreter there to help do accurate assessments.
The dentist has many patients to see so doing extractions is often all there is time for. Here you can see two providers working with patients.
In many cases the team has to bring all the supplies and instruments with them to do their work.
Reading and sun glasses are also given to those who need them.
After all the patients have been seen by the doctors or dentists, they go to the pharmacist to get their needed medications. This is a busy place as hundreds are seen each day.
During each day, we see many happy people.
Click here to see even more photos and info about the village team sites around Gracias. They are informative to give added detail about the village and work that IHS does. Team members doing additional team chores are shown, too. This is especially helpful to those who may go to these team sites in the future.
(More photos and info coming)