Vim & Vigor - Summer 2009 - (Page 56)

community connections caring hands physicians-in-training extend their care far beyond medicine N St. Mary-Corwin medical residents paint homes as part of their community outreach. getting care call Never in a million years—or at least the 73 years she’s been alive—did Laura Gary ever think a group of physicians would paint her house. But last fall, that’s exactly what happened. Medical residents from the Southern Colorado Family Medicine residency program spent a day wielding paintbrushes instead of stethoscopes to help spruce up Gary’s Pueblo home. The program, Operation Paintbrush, is just one of a halfdozen community service projects the residents participate in each year. “I had just bought my house and I was going to paint it myself, but then I got really sick,” Gary says. “I was amazed when the clinic called and told me that St. MaryCorwin doctors and nurses would be painting it. Now I just stand outside and say, ‘Isn’t it gorgeous?’ ” Southern Colorado Family Medicine provides care to insured, uninsured and underinsured patients of all ages. For more information, call 719-557-5855. new physicians an opportunity to better understand the challenges their patients face outside the doctor’s office, says Charles Raye, M.D., director of the residency program. It also helps bond them to the community, with many of the residents choosing to stay in Southern Colorado after they graduate. “As physicians, we can get frustrated when patients don’t do what we tell them,” Raye says. “We don’t realize that they may not be able to afford it or they have other issues that get in the way. The reality of going into someone’s home is really important.” ❋ stepping outside ❋ giving back to the community In addition to Operation Paintbrush, the residents also participate in programs to give rocking chairs to new mothers to foster the importance of mothers bonding with their babies, and to “adopt” families who are patients at the clinic and provide them with gifts at the holidays. “We see how doing something even small can be a huge contribution to the community,” says Katie Markley, M.D., a third-year resident who will graduate in June. Southern Colorado Family Medicine is the only family practice residency south of Denver. At any given time, 18 residents and their faculty provide care to more than 28,000 low-income patients each year through the program’s clinic. The residents also provide free care once a week to migrant workers in a small clinic outside of Pueblo. “The sad truth is that there’s a lot of need out there and not too many places to meet that need,” Raye says. the office Taking a break from clinic work to go into the community gives these 56 vim & vigor · su mme r 2 009

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Vim & Vigor - Summer 2009

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2009
Healthy Steps
Nurturing Health
Contents
Finally... Relief from Pain
Helping Hearts
Take Action
Check Your Tech
Small Wonders
Positively Healthy
On the Cover
Culinary Cures
In a Heartbeat
Make it Last
Safe Harbor
5 Million Lives
Under the Cyberknife
Around the Region
Ask the Experts
Community Connections

Vim & Vigor - Summer 2009

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