Updates

Operations Update (Timeline):

Operations was up to so much this past year! Not only did we help clinic run smoothly along with the other awesome committees, we had several fundraisers including Promise Pumpkins and the Ugly Sweater Con to help pay for our patients’ needs. We put together a holiday potluck for all of our student doctors, steering committee and volunteer attendings. Alongside Community Outreach, we performed a Medicaid Enrollment trial at clinic to try to get our eligible patients insurance. We completed a first year trial of working with Rutgers PharmD students and will continue to work with them in the future! We are expanding our interdisciplinary reach by working with the School of Social Work and are continuing our partnership with the PA school! We also recently rolled out the new version of our Electronic Medical Record to help improve our patients’ records and are working on rolling out an app in the future.

Lab Update (Timeline):
Lab Committee has continued to deliver quick and efficient lab services to our patients.  We have also worked to establish a better connection with the Cancer Education and Early Detection (CEED) program to provide better cancer-screening services to our patients.  For the remainder of the year, we would like to increase awareness of our cancer-screening program and increase efficiency by revamping our paper flow system.  We are excited to announce that we are currently training the newest members of lab – Gaby Ghobrial and Debby Chen.  In addition to being on lab committee, Debby is an orange belt in Judo and Gaby has piloted a plane.


Pharmacy Update (Timeline): 

The pharmacy committee has had the privilege of welcoming Devon O'Brien (M1) to our committee this year (fun fact about Devon: she was on the Georgetown rowing team for 4-years and owns horses). As a committee, we have been hard at work this year to help expand our program and make clinic run more efficiently. We recently put into motion laminated prescription examples as a guide to help M3s and M4s in their prescription writing for the clinic to help presenting become more mainstream and the pharmacy run more smoothly. We have also been working with the Pharmacy school at Rutgers to help integrate their program with ours for interdisciplinary learning at Promise Clinic. You can expect to see more pharmacy students working with attending and the pharmacy committee to help prescribe the most effective combination of medications for our patients. The pharmacy committee has also been busy working with the team members to get more patients in Prescription Assistance Programs (PAPs). This year we have submitted more PAP applications than ever before. We also have been focusing on finding discounted medications for patients who need a medication that is not on the $4 list. Also, with the start of the new green prescription pads, we have eliminated carbon copies in prescriptions and also vouchers to help save the clinic money and also expedite the voucher process at clinic to help patient visits run more efficiently. For the rest of the year, we are looking to help further integrate the roles of the pharmacy students at the Promise Clinic, encourage the use of PAPs and find a way to alert the pharmacy of incoming medication requests to help the clinic run even smoother.

Specialty Care Update (Timeline): 

       Specialty Care has had an exciting year to date. Karl Chamberlin, the newly appointed M1 member of our team, has been busy learning the ropes at clinic and the ins and outs of the Charity Care program. As a team, we continue to search for ways to improve the Specialty Care services available to our patient population. Through our interactions with RWJ's Psychiatry residents, we have ensured that psychiatric care is available in-house on a monthly basis to any patient in need. Additionally, with ophthalmology being one of the most frequently requested specialties, we have referred patients to free vision screenings that take place monthly in New Brunswick.  We are looking to expand our ophthalmology resources and are currently on the search for any local ophthalmologists interested in joining Promise Clinic's efforts to serve the under-served of our community. We continue to have a presence in clinic every week in order to provide resources, answer questions, and guide teams in helping their patients receive services needed for their overall health. Since last year, we have tracked the specialties requested by teams and the outcome of the request in an effort to learn more about our patient population and their specific needs. We are excited about the progress that we have made as a team so far this year and look forward to success in our current projects.

Education Update (Timeline): 

      Since the new M1 class has joined Promise Clinic at the beginning of this academic school year, attendance among student doctors at their patients’ appointments has remained high.  In particular, the education committee would like to congratulate teams 13 & 23 for having the highest percent attendance of all teams at this point in the school year! As shown on the attached graph, all teams have maintained strong attendance in the face of exams, interviews, & away rotations.  Note that the vast majority of absences on this graph are excused absences, and teams with relatively low attendance are no reason for concern on this basis. (Also this graph does not reflect when students came into clinic for appointments above and beyond their required ones.) To all our students doctors, the education committee says keep up the great attendance and don’t forget that you need to complete a minimum of two teaching sessions this year!

Community Outreach Update (Timeline): 

In the last four months, our committee has revamped and streamlined the recruitment procedure at Elijah’s Promise. This has involved working with Elijah’s Promise to make the transition for clients to become patients at Promise Clinic an easier process. Every Tuesday and Thursday night, we have been conducting blood pressure screenings with M1 and M2 student doctors at the soup kitchen, and have received positive feedback from both students and clients. On average, each week we are able to measure about 30 clients’ blood pressures and screen for possible candidates for Promise Clinic.

In addition, our committee has been working on health workshop outlines for M3s and M4s to educate clients on ways to improve their health through daily interventions. The workshops include stress management, healthy diets and nutrition, physical activity, and diabetes prevention and management.

Image Source: ChooseMyPlate.gov

QI Update (Timeline): 

Quality Improvement is currently working on a variety of projects related to clinic function and patient experience. We have been following up on our projects improving patient records and tracking the transition from paper to electronic medical records. After our training session we have completed chart reviews to ensure smooth transition and complete patient records. We are also beginning the implementation of our Patient Survey Project, in which we will analyze patient’s expectations from Promise Clinic and how well those expectations are being met. We are excited to incorporate patient voices into our quality improvement process. Another ongoing project with the Education Committee is creating guidelines to standardize the clinical skills expected of student doctors at each stage of their education. Future goals include completing these projects as well as strengthening our relationships with other Promise Clinic members, including new allied health professional students.

Finance Update (Timeline): 

Communications Update (Timeline): 

     We have changed our name from Phone coordinator to Communications Committee, as we work towards keeping an effective communication between patients and their teams. In addition to being a liaison between patients and student doctors, we are also moving towards having our members become certified Spanish interpreters in clinic. Also, we are in the process of launching a "Team Request Form" to make it easier for teams to get in touch with their patients. Feel free to reach out to any of us for any questions, concerns, or needs!