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TAP-IN is a source of timely and relevant information related to the practice of healthcare and the needs of our nation's uninsured. Clinicians who volunteer their time in free clinics experience first-hand the challenges and rewards of providing quality healthcare to people in need. In Their Own Words is a sampling of personal perspectives from these volunteers. TAP-IN in the Press provides a view into how the program and its volunteers are making a difference in the communities we serve.
Journalists interested in additional information should contact: Lorry Crawford at The Bergman Group.
In Their own Words
Listen to an Audio file of Doctors Describing their Volunteer Experience in a Free Clinic
"I just couldn’t stop being a doctor when I retired. I had a lot of uninsured low income people in my practice all my life and I just stuck with them".
George Kimberly, MD
Storehouse for Jesus Medical Ministries
Mocksville, NC
"I got mean as a snake after two years of not doing anything after I retired, so my wife took me down to the free clinic and enrolled me. I’m a retired urologist. I’ve undergone an intensive learning program about family practice. I’m still in medicine because I liked it and missed it, it is just hard to get out of your system."
John Scarf, MD
Davidson Medical Ministries Clinic
Lexington, NC
"I work in the free clinic about one day a month. I found that after retirement your knowledge seems to leave you fairly quickly if you don’t use it. This is a good way to keep involved and still see patients."
Winfrey Whicker, MD
Community Free Clinic
Concord, NC
"Volunteering reminded me of the days when I started to practice back in 1954 when you had to get your money directly from your patients and you didn’t have all these forms to fill out. You just dealt with the patient. That was the real joy to me. You could enjoy the practice of medicine."
Robert Abernathy, MD
ABCCM Medical Ministry
Asheville, NC
"I will say that personally I have never experienced more satisfaction than I working in the free clinics. It is far from what I experienced working in private practice. Just the fact that you are doing something for the underserved and you feel you are able to continue some of your persona as a physician without giving that up completely and yet being able to discard the frustration of private practice. I never walk away from the clinic without feeling that good that these people are grateful for the services that they do receive. It is just a great feeling."
J. Richard Tamisiea, MD
Tileston Outreach Health
Wilmington, NC
TAP-IN In The Press
- How You Can Still Be a Real Doctor After You Retire
From Medscape General Medicine Posted 06/18/2007
Click on link below to watch:
N. Thomas Connally, MD, a volunteer Medical Director at The Arlington Free Clinic in Virginia, explains how a retired physician can still ... be a "real doctor."
- North Carolina PBS TV Features TAP-IN's contribution to Healthcare in the State
- TAP-IN & Retired Physician Volunteer Featured on VA PBS Show
March 29, 2007
Virginia Currents
TAP-IN consultant Mark Cruise and Dr. Bill Seitz were featured on a segment of Virginia Currents, one of the trademark programs of Virginia public television. The show first aired March 29th in the greater Richmond area and has since aired several times across the Commonwealth. Host May-Lily Lee interviewed Cruise and Dr. Sietz about there experiences with TAP-IN and the need for senior physician volunteers in Free Clinics.
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