Volunteering Benefits Patients, Communities and the Docs Who Do It

Are you safe? Have you eaten today? Did you take your medication? Those questions can be heard every day in any primary care clinic in the country, but they stopped me in my tracks when I heard them recently on a sidewalk in Washington, D.C. In town to lobby Congress about physician payment and in the shadows of the U.S. Capitol building, I heard those words spoken by a primary care physician tending directly to a homeless man on the city streets. For Catherine Crossland, M.D., medical director for homeless outreach services at Unity Health Care, working the streets of Washington with a backpack full of medical supplies is a regular part of her job. My brief glimpse of her inspiring work brought to mind how much good primary care physicians do every week through volunteering.
Source: As We See It: Voices From the AAFP - Category: Practice Management Source Type: news