We aspire to model Jesus and his compassion for the hurting of the world through the clinic. Since its beginnings in the 1980s, Baxter’s clinic has gone through many changes. However, the goal remains always to serve, whether through medical and dental care, the nutrition and education program, the prosthetic initiative of Hope to Walk, working with other medical schools, or providing natural disaster relief.
A typical weekday starts in the early morning hours as people arrive at the campus gate. They are admitted to the clinic’s outside waiting area. They’ve come needing medical or dental care, a prosthetic appliance appointment, or vocational classes. They wait at the clinic entrance for their turn.
At 7:00 a.m. they are led in a devotional by Baxter students or staff with songs and prayers. Patients are charged a co-pay of 50 Lempiras (about US$2), The on-site pharmacy provides most prescribed medicines at no additional cost.
Typical patient cases seen at the clinic include: upper respiratory infections, gastrointestinal ailments, parasites, diabetes, hypertension, and dengue fever. Frequently, visiting doctors and health care workers expand the clinic’s services to include such things as eye and ear care.
When scheduled, patients in need of prosthetics services arrive at the Hope to Walk workshop. For some it is their first time to experience a prosthetice limb. For others it is a repair or replacement. For all it provides a level of freedom that has been taken away caused by injury or disease.
There is always a line waiting for dental services. The full service clinic has 4 chairs that are always booked. The dedicated staff of dentists and assistants are dedicated to their work on both young and old alike.
Contracts with a local medical lab provides quick test results for the women and children whose expert care depends on a clear diagnosis.