Google funded program brings MUSC resources to community in need

Google is giving the CARES Clinic about $115,000 over a two-year period for the effort. The technology company is also giving the Berkeley County School District $10,000 a year to cover the cost of opening St. Stephen Middle School on a Saturday every two months for the CARES Clinic team to see patients.  

Katie Orvin Tanner, public information officer for the school district, says it’s a way to get health care to people who really need it. “We appreciate the opportunity to be a part of this unique initiative and look forward to the upcoming CARES Clinics.”

Goals of the CARES Clinic program in Berkeley County include:

• Expanding access to health care in rural South Carolina, starting with St. Stephen.

• Bringing basic health services to the public, including immunizations and contraception.

• Teaching people about nutrition and lifestyle changes that can lower their risk of health problems.

• Bringing healthy food to people who need it.

• Using telehealth technology to reach people who have a hard time getting to a health specialist’s office.

In December, there will be another free clinic day, plus a food pharmacy. People will be able to pick up healthy food, but there’s more to the pharmacy than that. 

“We’ll have a dietitian available to explain why certain foods are better for you. That way people actually learn. The food is important, but you need to know what to do with that,” Ramsetty says. 

Plans are in the works for a teaching kitchen that will become part of the food pharmacy. She also wants to bring an insurance navigator to town to help people figure out how to get coverage and ultimately envisions a mobile clinic that can go where it’s needed. There will be devices and hotspots to connect with patients.

“The model we’re hoping to bring out there is not going to be all straightforward, traditional clinical medicine,” Ramsetty says. “What we want to do is bring medical services that also address a lot of the social determinants that are really important for this community. There are too many things that impact their health care that can’t be ignored and won’t be fixed with us giving them pills for their hypertension.”

Ramsetty says the medical students involved in the program will benefit, too, from seeing what some patients are dealing with — whether it’s a lack of access to healthy food, no reliable transportation or being forced to choose between buying food or medicine because they can’t afford both.  

“All health professionals need to be versed in community options that are available and know that it’s important to talk about this with their patients. Patients should start expecting that.” 

The football game, by the way, was sweet for the Timberland Wolves. They won 48 to 0.