The Augusta University and University of Georgia Medical Partnership’s Athens Free Clinic was awarded the 2023 Star of Community Achievement award from the Association of American Medical Colleges in November 2023.
This nationally recognized award honors a campus that has improved the health of the community by addressing health disparities and providing healthcare to those in need.
Dr. Suzanne Lester, director of Athens Free Clinic, said that winning this award was validating and affirming to the team of the medical partnership students, faculty and staff who work for the clinic. The clinic's novel approach — to allow patient care on real patients starting in the fifth week of the students’ first year — is one Lester said she hasn’t heard of at any other medical school.
“To get this award is really validating in that we have a valid curricular model but also a valid service model in terms of community impact and med student impact,” Lester said.
The Athens Free Clinic was established in 2018 as a place to reach local marginalized communities who have barriers to care in the form of transportation, stigma, finances, economics and lack of insurance in Athens-Clarke County.
Locations for the clinic were chosen based off of a 2015 Community Health Needs Assessment that identified communities with health related social needs. Now, medical student teams deliver free care at 12 community sites around Athens including but not limited to Cedar Shoals High School, Clarke Central High School, Covenant Presbyterian and Nuci’s Space.
Lester said that, since March 2018, the clinic has had 3,224 patient encounters, valued at nearly $800,000 in free care.
“I think the value comes from helping people stay out of the emergency room — helping people get access to primary care without going into debt,” Lester said.
The award was a morale booster for the team of faculty, according to Lester. Receiving the award, she said, was re-energizing for everyone and has kept up motivation.
“We would do it no matter what because we, in the day to day, see the rewards — but I think that getting a little bit of external validation always helps,” Lester said.
The clinic has been impactful not only for patients, Lester said, but also for the medical students who are amongst the faculty. She said that the students get to learn from the patients and not only learn to be doctors, but learn to be doctors with very few resources.
“I think it's empowering for both the medical student to learn to be a great listener to understand the patient context and I think it's also really important that patients feel like they are actually educating our students,” Lester said.
The clinic’s work and model will be presented in June 2024 at the AAMC’s Regional Medical Campuses Conference in Washington, D.C. Attendees from regional campuses will see what the medical school and clinic are doing, and possibly adapt the model they have created, Lester said.
“I’m extremely proud of our Athens Free Clinic and Community and Population Health teams,” Shelley Nuss, AU and UGA Medical Partnership’s campus dean and associate dean for Graduate Medical Education, said in an email to The Red & Black. “They have selflessly served in communities that might otherwise go without health care. Athens-Clarke County is a healthier place thanks to their unwavering efforts.”
