Remote Area Medical, RAM had a clinic at The Forum in Inglewood, California from August 11 – 18, 2009.  Remote Area Medical is a nonprofit foundation from Tennessee.  The founder of Remote Area Medical is Stan Brock who was the co-star of the 1960’s show “Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom.”   In the 25 year history of RAM, it has served mostly in rural America to provide primarily vision, dental, and medical care to people in need.  RAM has organized 575 clinics around the world.

The South Bay Optometric Society had volunteer optometrists providing eye examinations during the week long event.  Greg Pearl, OD helped organize the optometrists and got the word out that they needed more volunteers.  The optometrists from the SBOS that were able to volunteer were Gene Chang, O.D., Deborah L. Geering-Fend, O.D., Stuart Forman, O.D., Greg Pearl, O.D., Diana Risco, O.D., Robert L. Shapiro, O.D., and Richard Vendeland, O.D.  Other doctors who volunteered were Richard Armstrong, O.D., Cy Jayme Chui, PharmD, O.D., Barry Leonard, O.D., and Ron Smith, MD.

Greg Pearl, O.D. was interviewed by Steve Lopez of the LA Times.  Dr. Pearl has gone to Third World countries to volunteer with VOSH, Volunteer Optometric Services to Humanity.  He is currently President Elect for VOSH/International.  When Dr. Pearl was asked what differences are there between overseas clinics and the one at the Forum, Dr. Pearl said that the people here speak English, but the needs are the same and some have had to wait days for their examination.  He is outraged that vision and dental care are not in most US insurance plans and not usually part of any discussion on healthcare reform.

Deborah L. Geering-Fend, O.D. was overwhelmed at how many people were waiting for an eye examination, anywhere from 50 to over 100.  The patients she helped were either never insured or had lost their insurance due to being unemployed.  She is grateful that she was able to volunteer, but was frustrated by the thought that this shouldn’t be happening here in America.  It is just like what you hear about when people are examined in Third World countries when patients travel miles and wait days.  This is just what happened to the patients who were examined at The Forum.  Patients came from Santa Barbara, San Diego, and Palm Springs and waited two to three days to be examined.  Dr. Geering-Fend was thankful that she could help patients right here in America.

The results of the RAM LA were that 6,344 patients were examined for 14,561 patient encounters.    There were 3, 827 volunteers, mostly non-medical.  There were 2, 266 vision care patients, with 1,984 pairs of eyeglasses made on site.  As for dental, there were 3,182 dental patients, 2,274 teeth extracted, 5,438 teeth saved and 1,889 cleanings.  There were also 8,775 medical visits.  The total value of medical care received was $2,821,383.

For more information on Remote Area Medical please go to ramusa.org