Student-Run Philadelphia Clinic Offers Lessons in Low-Cost Care

Philadelphia medical students who run a volunteer clinic at a homeless shelter are getting firsthand lessons in providing health care on a budget, the public-radio program Marketplace reports.

The JeffHope walk-in clinic is staffed by Jefferson University students, who hold campus dances and other fund-raising events to finance the facility and make decisions about what drugs to stock and what lab tests to pay for.

Working outside the classroom, and standard hospital procedures, student volunteers say they learn about the true costs of care. Taking a patient’s history can be as revealing as a lab test, Kenneth Hemba, a medical resident said, “and talking to a patient is free.”