VHMM Day 5, Part 2 - Mission Complete (Barangay 105)

Vietnamese Houston Medical Mission
Day 5, Part 2

2:45 PM – We’re awake and boarding the bus. We’re heading to Barangay 105, the last town where we'll host our final clinic of this mission trip. We’re tired and we’re short about one-third of our team (they went to meet an archbishop), but we’re ready to make some magic.

Mailinh is part of the group that went to see the archbishop, so she asked me to assist Tinh in surveying and setting up the clinic at Barangay 105. I’m excited to get this news; thanks to my two years of doing event management for the UW BEDC, day-of-event execution is right in my wheelhouse. I’m ready to make this clinic run as smooth as possible.

3:30 PM – We reach Barangay 105. Getting to the facility where we'll host our clinic requires that we go down a long stretch of road. The bus opts to back its way in, so one of the hired local support team members jumps out and guides the bus driver backwards while holding up power lines to keep him from ripping them down from the poles.

We reach the facility, and Tinh and I get to work surveying. The facility setup is somewhat similar to this morning’s facility: it’s a one-story building with a meeting hall in the middle and another conference space to the right. Tinh instructs me to take care of setting up the line while he coordinates the stations inside the building.

We move pediatrics to a shaded spot right outside of the building, as that always has the longest line that can easily get out of control and confusing for our staff and patients.

I gather my two fellow non-medical support teammates who will be helping me control traffic, and after a minute of looking around, the solution hits me. Since the road won’t see much traffic, I can have two separate lines wait outside: one line will be for the doctors, and the other line will be for the dentists. Pharmacy can keep a line inside because they’re usually able to keep their line down to about 5-10 people.

I move the triage (or “registration” as I know it in event management) further away from the building, and I have everyone who has already been waiting to follow me down to triage to get their sheet of paper so that they know what line to join.

Side note: Moving the triage/registration line would’ve been a helpful solution for Barangay 12.

4:00 PM – I have Tinh tell me how much time we have for our last clinic, as that will dictate how many patients the dentist team can see. Since there’s only one dentist, we have to keep their numbers low. The dentist tells me that they can see a maximum of 30 patients. I grab a piece of paper lying around and take it to the registration. I instruct them to mark down on this piece of paper the name of the dental patient, and to assign them a number. They are only to write up to 30 patients. After that, we won’t be seeing any more dental patients for the day.

After a bit of yelling and directing traffic, all of the lines are set up exactly how I wanted them and traffic is flowing smoothly. This is already shaping up to be a successful clinic within the first 10 minutes of operation. I’m thrilled.

Thuy and Dr. Trung are managing the pediatrics line. Their line is already both the longest and very long. I estimate that their line was already 50 patients deep by the time the clinic started.

4:30 PM – Another local dentist, the sister of the wife of Raphy (the owner of the house we’re using), joins in to help. We still keep the patient cap at 30 because our dentist on staff has been going non-stop these past five days, and there’s no reason to tire her out anymore.

4:45 PM – Everyone on the team is still going strong. The lines are well maintained, and the patients are being seen as quickly as possible.

Tinh and I decide to end the triage at 5pm and end patient treatment at 5:30p. Raphy suggests that we stop around that time because it’ll get dark and make work difficult for everyone. There’s no electricity, so we’re operating solely on daylight.

I pass these instructions to all of the teams.

5:00 PM – Triage stops taking patients as instructed, and they move their desk to the side of the building.

I start telling patients who came late that we unfortunately couldn’t treat them. This becomes the hardest part of my job for this entire mission. I have to tell a man that we cannot treat his three children because we’ve stopped taking new patients. He’s visibly disappointed. I really hate giving that news and turning him away, but I know that if we make an exception for one, then we’re going to make exceptions for many more and make a lot more people disappointed.

5:30 PM – Like clockwork, all of the lines are finished. Even pediatrics is winding down. Tinh confirms that we’re going to hand out gifts to the children. Within a few minutes, I’m making that announcement. I have the kids form two lines, lines that stretch out to about 150 kids each.

I lead the kids in an old clapping exercise that I learned back when I was in elementary school. I’ve been pretty strict on all of the lines so as to maintain order, so I figured it’d be a welcomed change of pace to have some fun with them.

Fortunately we have enough gifts for all of the kids with plenty left over.

5:45 PM – We’ve given out all of the gifts. While the rest of the team is staring to load boxes, I give a quick speech to thank everyone for their cooperation and for having us. They’re all appreciative of our service. I have all of the kids stand and bid them a good evening. I then join the rest of the team in loading the bus to go home.

6:00 PM – We’re finally home. We all head in to take a shower and grab dinner. Like always, I’m the first one at the dining hall because I want to beat the food and beer line and have a bit of quiet time to write this entry.

Chances are that everyone is going to engage in more fun times after dinner. I’m personally too exhausted to partake in the activities, so I’m probably going to take another shower and upload photos to Facebook. I realize that this is my M.O., once work is done, I need a bit of space to decompress, especially from a hectic day, or week for that matter.

8:00 PM – Just walked back in the house. Someone brought two masseuses to the house. A one-hour massage costs only $10. I’m already in line.