A free community health clinic will be held March 18 and 19 in Greer, South Carolina.
The clinic, to be held at Greer High School, is run by Remote Area Medical (RAM)®, a Knoxville, Tennessee-based nonprofit that provides free, quality healthcare to those in need, and is being organized by a volunteer team of medical students at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville (SOMG).
The clinic will provide free dental, vision and medical services to the community, including underserved and uninsured individuals. Physicians, dentists and vision specialists will be on hand at the clinic. Volunteers and healthcare providers will also be available to connect participants with follow-up information and resources for primary-care health options in the community.
This clinic will be the first full-scale RAM clinic to be held in South Carolina (two smaller disaster clinics were held in 2016), but it may not be the last. Bo Layton, a second-year SOMG medical student and community host group leader for the Greer clinic, hopes the clinic becomes an ongoing event, organized annually by first- and second-year medical students at SOMG.
After graduating from undergraduate college at Furman University, Layton, who is from Knoxville, Tennessee, volunteered with RAM at a few of their clinics in Tennessee. The SOMG second-year medical student saw firsthand the impact the non-profit had on communities. He recalls one clinic in northeastern Tennessee held at a small elementary school that was attended by many neighbors. “They provide life changing care for a lot of people,” Layton said.
“We started talking with RAM just to see what it would take to have a clinic here in South Carolina,” Layton said. “And they said there had never been one, and we all thought it could be a really cool and unique opportunity to bring one to our area.”
Residents interested in attending the Greer clinic can find more information here: https://www.ramusa.org/clinic-schedule/
Every RAM clinic is free, open to the public and on a first-come, first-served basis. Residents are encouraged arrive early to the clinic, especially for dental services. There are no qualifying questions and ID is not required. The patient parking lot will open no later than 11:59 p.m. on Friday night, March 17 for patients to begin lining up.
The University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville is a major sponsor of the event, and a handful of other local businesses have made financial contributions to help make the clinic a reality, said Layton, the SOMG medical student and community host group leader for the Greer clinic.
The clinic will be held at Greer High School, 3000 E Gap Creek Rd, Greer, SC 29651. Clinic doors typically open at 6 a.m.
*This event is not sponsored or promoted by the School District of Greenville County. This event is being held at Greer High School in accordance with the rental procedures of the School District that allows nonprofit organizations the opportunity to use School District facilities when not in use for school operations.