LOS ANGELES – Healthcare Career College’s students volunteered to help provide free medical care to thousands of patients at Care Harbor Los Angeles.

The three day clinic event at The Reef started on Saturday, October 13th. Our students and instructors prepared to serve the Los Angeles community as early as 6:00AM. For many of our medical assistant and ultrasound technician students, this was their first year volunteering for Care Harbor. “At first I was nervous, but after seeing all of the different types of people that I would be taking care of, it is a very cool experience” Medical Assistant student, Vanessa Perez shared. We were joined with many other medical, nursing, dental, and optometry student volunteers from other schools as well.

Our students were stationed at the registration and Glucose Testing area. Patients got their glucose levels tested as a part of their free medical services. Our student Asipeli Moli explained that “The process itself is very simple, but also can be very important”. It helped that a lot of our students were Spanish speakers, especially in an under served and mainly Hispanic population.

On the second floor, our Ultrasound Technician students were providing breast and gynecology ultrasound screening to hundreds of patients. DMS Instructor Lylan Pham has taken her students to volunteer for 4 years in a row now. “It’s very rewarding when you can help those that were afraid to get a check up due to financial issues” she states.

According to Care Harbor’s mission, they aim to provide free medical, dental, and vision care. Especially to the uninsured, under insured, and under served in our communities. For those who live without access to the care they need. The Care Harbor clinic events are a destination for help and hope. The CEO and founder Donald Manelli says “You’re entitled to be healthy, you know, health care is not a privilege” (cbslocal, 2018)

The event last year served over 23,000 patients. As a result, they were able to connect over 5,000 patients with a follow up care. Healthcare Career College was also among the 22,000 volunteers from last year. We hope to be able to continue volunteering next year as well.