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Last Saturday, a Pahrump Valley High School building, usually used for alternative education programs, was transformed into a powerful medical facility that included a check-in desk, triage center, about 20 dental chairs, a darkroom for examinations of eyes and a women’s clinic. .
Patients lined up early in the morning for free medical services at the pop-up Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic after camping in tents, cars and recreational vehicles in the parking lot.
Among them were Destiny, 26, and her boyfriend Ryan, 24, who – like several other attendees – asked that their last names not be used. They are expecting a boy in a few weeks and wanted to take advantage of the free dental services of the clinic in their community because Ryan was experiencing a toothache.
He said Nevada Independent that the service will relieve the stress he was experiencing. Destiny said they tried to book discount dental services at UNLV, but there was no appointment until January.
RAM—a Tennessee-based nonprofit organization that works nationwide and relies on health care workers who volunteer their time—began in 1985 to address health care shortages and provide quality service to underserved communities and people who are uninsured. John Volpe, RAM’s chief development officer, said the organization receives about 300 requests a year from groups across the country to co-host pop-up clinics in areas of need.
“You can shoot a dart anywhere in the United States and the need is there,” he said at the clinic.
The nonprofit Nye County Community Coalition hosted the RAM pop-up clinic at no cost to patients. Ryan Muccio, co-chair of the coalition, said the service cuts red tape and anxiety about insurance authorizations that stress providers and patients.
Muccio said for the past eight years, doctors, dentists, optometrists, psychiatrists, emergency medical technicians and nurses have run the clinic in Pahrump each year as volunteers, serving about 300 to 400 patients in two and a half days. He said participants don’t have to bring identification or reveal who they are to receive the service, and that providers get a renewed sense of hope and passion from volunteering.
“They just come here and practice medicine and serve people,” Muccio said. “It truly restores and fills people’s cups. Many volunteers say they come here to refill their cup of passion every year.”
Muccio said people started lining up for the clinic at noon the day before; they included locals from Pahrump and Las Vegas and people passing through the state. Offers included medical check-ups, but many people were there for vision and dental treatment – patients had to choose between dental or vision services due to high demand.
Many insurance options, including some programs with Medicaid and Medicare, do not offer dental and vision coverage.
Patients can leave the clinic with glasses that are made on site, get a crown, filling or tooth extraction, get a flu shot, undergo a cervical cancer screening or take home a voucher for free or discounted medicine. Clinic volunteers also gave out vouchers for free mammograms.
“It’s a blessing,” said Vicky, 68, a retiree who came to have a filling repaired. “Many of us don’t have insurance and live on fixed incomes.”
She said she is part of a community of “snowbirds” who come to the RAM clinic every year. The group lives and travels in RVs with no home base.
The clinic also served inmates from the Southern Nevada Detention Center based in Pahrump, who remained in ankle chains and handcuffs during dental procedures and under police surveillance. Inmates were also able to volunteer to help set up and tear down the clinic.
“There are actually some people who volunteered in that capacity in years past that are actually here volunteering now, now that they’re out (of prison),” said Ronnie Hatfield, senior volunteer coordinator.
The clinic held earlier this month included 217 volunteers from Nevada.
Alex Phipps, media specialist for RAM, said each clinic includes specialty doctors, such as a psychiatrist, pediatrician or podiatrist, and that the mix of services depends on the providers who sign up.
Kathie McKenna said the organization hopes to get a local optometrist to donate time to the Pahrump clinic.
“We don’t have optometrists coming from Pahrump or Las Vegas,” McKenna said. “The gentleman that’s here … he’s from Arizona.”
Colleges are also involved, with UNLV’s dental school bringing in up to 30 students. There were also two UNLV dental professors who ran the dental treatment area.
Dentist Michael Sherman, a UNLV professor, said it was his third time helping patients through RAM.
“This is a way that you can take care of at least one or two urgent needs without having dental benefits,” he said.
The clinic also recently started offering dentures to patients – although only one dentist is offering the service, so it’s limited – and they hope to expand that service with a mobile denture unit.
Sherman said many insurance plans leave out dental coverage because people can live without teeth. But he said keeping a clean mouth is essential to a person’s overall health because the buildup of oral bacteria can overwhelm the body, making it more of a challenge for the immune system to fight off colds or viruses.
“The hardest thing about it is that there’s really no follow-up, and of course, we encourage them to do that,” Sherman said. “But we understand it’s difficult.”
Seeing specialists as family
Twenty-nine-year-old Dalia was one of 373 patients who went to the pop-up health clinic in Pahrump. She said she has post-traumatic stress disorder in hospitals after doctors failed to diagnose her newborn, who later died of a blood disease.
Dalia, who lives in Pahrump, heard about the clinic through her boyfriend’s grandmother. She said all three, including her boyfriend, are Native American and share a skepticism about hospitals, but they felt better seeing health practitioners as family in the pop-up window.
“Another reason I came is because I ran out of (psychiatric) medication,” Orona said. “I had Medicaid and then I went back to work. With my insurance, my medication is $700. I can’t even afford my medication anymore.”
Phipps said RAM covers all or most of the cost of a variety of prescription drugs through grant-funded vouchers.
She said the organization provides a welcoming environment for “people who have nowhere else to go.”
“They have a lot of anxiety,” Phipps said. “And this is much friendlier and much more comforting. Because everyone here is a volunteer and here for the goodness of their hearts.”
