Ita Ford, 23 Apr 1940 – 2 Dec 1980

After a long, tiresome week full of anatomy dissection and long classes and extracurricular activities, it was my turn to work a Saturday at the Ita Ford Clinic on 115th St. and 1st. Ave. On my way over there in the cold wind and rain I was half regretting having chosen this weekend to work at the clinic, but it wasn't something I could really get out of, and plus, I knew that I was interested in the experience. I had a great experience there though, and I am really glad I went.

Ita Ford works a little differently than EHHOP: firstly, only three first-years and one upperclassman work the clinic, even though they see about the same number of patients that EHHOP does (about 12 per day). There are two nurse practicioners that run Ita Ford, and no physicians. It is also done in the middle of a church office, with no privacy and no medical equipment except for what the NPs bring with them. All in all, it has a much small, more community-based feel to it than EHHOP does, which is run out of an actual Internal Medicine office. I can't say which one I liked better than the other, though: while I think EHHOP is far better equiped to deal with medical issues, Ita Ford seems to be a little bit more about the patients and less about the medical student experience.

With six people working Ita Ford this weekend, I was pretty much the only one who had any type of working knowledge of Spanish. While I hardly know how to conduct a medical history in English, let alone Spanish (i.e. I have no idea how to say gall bladder in Spanish), I was runing around trying to translate for everyone trying to figure out whey the patients weren't feeling well. With Colleen (ne of the NPs), I personally saw two women needing prescription refills, one woman needing a checkup, one man with diabetes who works at a French bakery (bad news), and one woman who suffers from depression and what looked like hepatomegaly (though we were waiting on her liver function tests to be sure). It was very interesting, and I got a chance to take blood pressures and things like that.

The Ita Ford Clinic normally receives most of its medications through a program they worked out with Bristol-Myers Squibb. Recently, however, BMS has changed its policy of drug donations, claiming that drugs can only be given to U.S. citizens. Since almost 90% of all the patients at Ita Ford are immigrants, this new policy has practically wiped out Ita Ford's ability to give drugs to its patients. This has become a major issue, as highlighted by the first patient whom I saw on Saturday, who had eight medications she needed to refill, each of which was upwards of $100. Since Ita Ford has a meager budget of about $3000 per month for prescriptions, this one patient was going to account for a large portion of that budget if the clinic paid for her medications. It is just very sad that in the meantime while the clinic staff works on how to obtain drugs cheaply, it has to turn patients away who are not able to pay for their own medications. It is just an incredibly horrible situation.

Before I get back to my reading, I wanted to talk a little bit about Ita Ford, the person, as opposed to the clinic that was named after her. She was a nun who worked for many years in El Salvador looking after the poor, and was raped and killed along with three other nuns in December of 1980 by member of the El Salvadorian National Guard. One on Ita Ford's nieces is the NP who started the Ita Ford Clinic here in East Harlem. Ita's story really struck a cord with me in relation to the clinic and her selfless work with the poor community. I just hope that I am able to think about some of that as I progess in this field I am working in.

"Some things hold true wherever one is, and at whatever age. What I’m saying is that I hope you can come to find that which gives life a deep meaning for you, something that energizes you, enthuses you, enables you to keep moving ahead. I can’t tell you what it might be. That’s for you to find, to choose, to love. I can just encourage you to start looking and support you in the search."
-- Ita Ford