Ohio State received the 2022 regional W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities for their work on the Columbus Free Clinic. Credit: Lantern File
Ohio State launched the nonprofit, student-run Columbus Free Clinic 30 years ago to provide free medical care and social services for underserved communities.
Ohio State received the 2022 regional W.K. Kellogg Foundation Community Engagement Scholarship Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities — which recognizes community engagement efforts among public universities around the United States — for its unique service with the clinic, for the fifth time since the award’s launch in 2006.
“We do a lot of work to catch people who otherwise would not get care, or if they did, it would be too expensive,” Madelin Zi Ching, a fourth-year in medical anthropology and clinic volunteer, said. “Where certain aspects of health care in America fail, we are helping to catch the people who otherwise would not have access to quality medical care.”
Ching is one of a few hundred Ohio State students who volunteer with the clinic every year and has been with the clinic for about 2 1/2 years in total.
Summit Shah, the assistant medical director of the clinic, said the clinic has grown tremendously in the size and scope of services since its inception 30 years ago.
Volunteers have expertise in a variety of health care services, allowing them to cater to the needs of a large patient base. In 2022 alone, the clinic provided over 3,000 free patient visits and 2,500 free prescriptions, according to Ohio State.
They have also implemented new resources, such as telehealth appointments and electronic medical records, to increase their patient capacity. The clinic’s productivity is mainly due to their hundreds of volunteers, Shah said.
At the heart of all of this is a team of physicians, care providers and Ohio State students of all majors, donating their time, Ching said.
“It is great to recognize how congruently [the clinic] works with multiple areas of Ohio State and [the] Wexner Medical Center,” Ching said. “It is easy to get lost in the weeds of only focusing on the health care side of things, but it is not just medical students volunteering their time. It is also undergrad students who work as check-in people, in the lab or in social work. These people care so significantly and do so much for patients.”
Shah said the award will provide recognition of the clinic’s work and potentially recruit more volunteers while energizing current ones. He said he hopes it will raise awareness of the clinic’s work, drawing in more potential patients who cannot afford medical care.
“Reaching out to people who do not have access to health care and are underserved in our current society is the most rewarding aspect of the clinic,” Shah said.
Oftentimes, he said he sees patients with chronic conditions who cannot access necessary medication. Providing this medication, which can completely change the way patients live their lives, always rejuvenates his determination.
Chronic illness patients make up a large portion of the patients that the Columbus Free Clinic treats.
This award also reflects positively on the Wexner Medical Center, reassuring them that they are heading in the right direction and truly helping people, Ching said.
