Crossroad Health Center - OTR

Branden Kowal, Summer 2010

Crossroad Health Center Downtown is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) located in the Over the Rhine (OTR) neighborhood. OTR has a high proportion of low or no income individuals. Therefore, the population is also mostly underinsured or uninsured. This facility offers the patients a unique opportunity to have their health needs met without having the proper insurance backing them.

At Crossroad, the patient population seen is mostly (70%) African-American with the remaining proportion split between Latino and Caucasian. This allowed me the opportunity to interact with a diverse population as I never had before. It was a valuable experience to be the minority in race as well as social background. I truly gained a passion for helping the underserved and I plan to continue serving a diverse population in my future.

My most memorable experiences at Crossroad were my one-on-one conversations with patients. Some of the best conversations were not about the patient's present illness, but were about their lives and what struggles had brought them into poverty or addiction. My eyes were opened to how poverty or addiction can be caused by numerous factors. I met patients who were raised in the cycle of poverty or addiction as well as patients who fell into it from the upper class. Simply labeling a person as homeless, jobless, or addict is a way to avoid hearing the story that many patients in difficult circumstances are waiting to tell. My time at Crossroad was greatly enriched by asking patients questions that allowed me to gain insight into their lives and offer aid to not only their medical needs, but their emotional needs as well.

From my experiences at Crossroad I have grown in my understanding of seeing the patient as a whole person and taking time to listen to them. Many patients have issues that run much deeper than a surface level diagnosis. Simply listening, offering to pray for a patient, or being a spiritual resource can help some of these patients on a level that no medication ever could.

Another aspect of the summer was helping Crossroad transition from paper charts to electronic medical records (EMR). I was able to assist in the entry of many patient charts and through this I was able to learn more about diseases and medications. After entering patient charts, I shadowed doctors and saw the charts come to life. This was a great way to reinforce the information I had learned.

Through shadowing the doctors at Crossroad and seeing how much they value the time spent with patients, I now know how important it is to view your patients as people not dollar signs. I have seen doctors in the past who focused on fixing the primary illness as fast as possible and did not meet any of the other needs of the patient. Here at Crossroad I have learned that my future patients are worthy of my time and I want to spend the quality time needed with each one. I cannot wait to use what I have learned in my future medical practice.