The Ob/Gyn Center at Bethesda North Hospital

Sara Medek, Summer 2011

This summer I had the wonderful opportunity to intern at the Bethesda North OB/Gyn Clinic. The clinic, located directly across from the Bethesda North Hospital, focuses on quality medical care for women of all incomes. As a part of the TriHealth OB/Gyn residency program, the clinic is staffed completely by residents who are supervised by an attending on call. This organization allows great opportunity for teaching while also allowing the clinic to offer affordable, quality health insurance. Approximately 50 percent of patients are covered by medicare, while the rest are self-pay or patients with insurance that does not cover maternity costs. The clinic has a unique package option for pregnant women which covers all normal pregnancy related care from ultrasounds and prenatal visits to the hospital stay and epidural. This OB contract costs $2500 for a vaginal delivery or $3000 for a c-section. Additionally, the clinic also houses a full nursing staff, financial advisor, dietitian, social worker and care coordinator.

My summer experience involved a rapid acclimation to the OB/Gyn specialty. I started out shadowing residents, and soon was taught to take accurate patient histories, perform physical exams, find fetal heart tones and measure fundal heights for pregnant women, as well as pap smears, DNA probes, and examine wet mounts for different bacterial infections. In addition to work at the clinic, I also was able to occasionally scrub in on surgeries and procedures at Bethesda North such as c-sections, tubal ligations and deliveries. I also was able to shadow the onsite financial counselor, care coordinator and dietician. Seeing how the clinic is run and the obstacles many of them face gave me an appreciation for the care that patients get outside of the standard encounter with the physician. Without these services many of these women would have missed opportunities and resources that help both their health and often the health of their future child.

Through this experience I gained a wealth of knowledge about the OB/Gyn specialty as well as general clinical experience. I truly enjoyed interacting with patients, and learned a lot about tailoring medicine for the population at hand. For instance, just being aware of pricing and patient lifestyle can increase compliance and result in better patient care. I feel that I am walking away with a better understanding of the challenges in providing care for the underserved.