Bridging The Gaps In Healthcare

As I reflect on my experience as a volunteer intern at Crossroad Health Center I realize that my experiences there will impact not only my career as a physician, but more importantly my life as a whole. I started at Crossroad ignorant to how the healthcare system worked, and unaware of the healthcare gaps that exist in our healthcare system. Fortunately there are places such as Crossroad Health Center who make it their mission to decrease these gaps in the healthcare system.

Crossroad has taught me that medicine is a team effort. Before I was an intern I thought of medicine as doctors and nurses but it is so much more than that. From myself as a volunteer intern to the physicians, everyone plays a crucial role at Crossroad to ensure quality care for the patients. The respect among the employees there is special, it makes everyone feel like what they are doing is important, and this leads to better care for the patients. Whenever a Crossroad employee is giving a tour to someone looking to join the team they always mention the VIP’s dressed in blue and how important they are to the clinic.

This feeling of importance among every person at Crossroad is crucial in order to provide the best care possible to the patients, because they truly are in need of it. I will never forget my first day shadowing I saw a patient on over thirty medications who was had diabetes, blindness, hepatitis B, kidney disease, and countless other chronic conditions. I was ignorant to the health issues that poverty and the health care gap can cause. I will never forget my experiences shadowing and hearing patients tell the physician they cannot afford a medication that would cost them less than ten dollars. Crossroad has taught me that some people may try to improve their health but their life situations make it extremely difficult. For this reason in the future I will look at patients and their whole situation rather then just their symptoms, which is one of the most important things I have learned at Crossroad.  

--Ellis Green