The City of Gracias
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.
When the team arrives in the village, this is typically what they see… many patients waiting to see the doctor or dentist.
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.
After unloading and setting up their supplies, the team gets started by registering the many patients to see the various care givers.
