Richard Strunk, DC, adjusts a patient’s low back while Melena Keeth documents the procedure.

Over 2300 people, many of them employed but uninsured, braved sub-freezing December temperatures to line up for medical, dental, optometric and chiropractic services. The event was sponsored by the Kansas City Free Health Clinic (where Cleveland Chiropractic College provides chiropractic care for patients and clinical rotations for senior students) and the National Association of Free Clinics. Two popular TV hosts with national audiences—Keith Olbermann of MSNBC’s Countdown and Dr. Mehmet Oz of the syndicated Dr. Oz Show—publicized the event on their programs. Olbermann’s audience contributed over $1 million (from 25,000 individual donations) to fund this event as well as two previous one-day free clinics in New Orleans and Little Rock.

Cleveland Faculty Steps Up

Candice Yancy discusses chiropractic care with an interested patient.

The volunteer chiropractors from CCCKC—Drs. Steve Agocs, Richard Strunk, Nathan Bailey, Debra Denno, Jill Davis, James Bond and Katherine Smith, along with Overland Park chiropractor and CCCKC alumna, Dr. Michelle Robin—emerged from the event energized by all they had seen and done.

Dr. Agocs—who also treats patients and supervises student interns at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic as part of his College responsibilities—describes a well-organized setup in which medical staff triaged patients before routing them to specific services, including chiropractic care. “Each of us did it a little differently. In my case, I had the student take the patient’s history and then remain in the room with me while I did the necessary exam procedures and determined whether it was safe to adjust the patient. I saw 14 patients in the four hours that I was there, and there were maybe three that I didn’t adjust. Most of them had been to a chiropractor before but maybe a third of them had not. We gave each of them a card to follow up, either at one of the College’s clinics or at the Kansas City Free Health Clinic or the Johnson County Health Partnership, where we also provide chiropractic care.”

Steve Agocs, DC, (r.) prepares to deliver a cervical adjustment while Carl Cleveland IV (l.) enters information in the patient’s file.

Dr. Agocs emphasizes that contrary to what many might expect, those needing services at the free clinic include not only the unemployed but large numbers of employed people—seasonal IRS workers and realtors among them—whose employers do not provide health insurance and cannot afford to purchase it on the individual market. “They’re relatively normal patients but they slip through the cracks,” Agocs explains. “Many of these patients have a variety of health issues which I didn’t see as often when I was in private practice. Pretty much every patient who walks in the door will have diabetes, high cholesterol and high blood pressure. Some of my patients are people who are wondering if they’re going to eat today, not what they’re going to eat. I’ve realized over time that the Kansas City Free Health Clinic, despite being one of the largest free clinics in the country, is one of the best-kept secrets in Kansas City.”

For Students, an Opportunity for Service and Learning

Devin Mobley, a senior student and intern at CCCKC who also serves as student council president, found her volunteer experience both challenging and rewarding. “From the very get-go,” she recalls, “the medical volunteers were asking us, ‘Where does chiropractic fit in? What patients should we be referring to you?’ We said, for starters, back pain, neck pain and headaches. They understood back pain and neck pain but were puzzled by our including headaches on the list. It was a reality check for me. We live in this little world where your fellow students and family and professors all understand what chiropractic is. They get it. But here we were out in the medical world and we needed to be able to explain why we were there and how we could help.”

Devin Mobley with a patient.

“It was frustrating to hear second and third-year medical students say that they had no idea what chiropractors do,” Devin adds. “It wasn’t that they were against chiropractic, but that they really knew nothing about it. So there was this window of opportunity for connection. They were open and honest. One of them said to me, ‘We don’t know anything about musculoskeletal pain.’ Once we explained what we do, they started sending people our way. That was truly refreshing.”

For Devin, the opportunity to see patients with serious problems, to perform the initial exam, and then to observe a faculty chiropractor complete the first-visit workup and treatment, was exceptionally valuable. “When I was working with Dr. Katherine Smith, I had two patients where I went through the MRS (motor, sensory and reflex) testing and orthopedic tests that we’ve learned here, and found that the patients’ pain did actually follow the same dermatome pattern and match up with their areas of pain and joint restrictions. The pieces of the puzzle were really coming together.”

Carl Cleveland IV and Cynthia Duffy, in white coats, with Linda Gerdes, CCCKC Community Outreach Representative.

On a personal note, Devin adds that she understands first-hand what many free clinic patients experience. “I’m a single mother and I haven’t been insured for two years. For me, volunteering was such a good way to get into the holiday spirit of hope and people taking care of one another.”

Other student interns volunteering at this event were Carl Cleveland IV, Cynthia Duffy, Melena Keeth, Amy Ketner, Ryan Nogle, Suzie Weege and Candice Yancy.

Daniel Redwood, DC, is an Associate Professor at Cleveland Chiropractic College – Kansas City and Editor-in-Chief of Health Insights Today and
The Daily HIT blog.