A typical day in the life of the medical mission team from St. John's Cathedral

Travel and Accommodations

Medical and other mission teams visiting Xela stay at COFA, a Catholic family retreat center. COFA is similar to hotel built around a flower filled courtyard.

Medical mission teams sometimes travel for up to three hours from Xela to visit remote mountain villages, or other cities in the region. Travel is in 15-18 passenger mini-buses with supplies carried on top under a tarp.

Setting up

When the medical team arrives at a site the first half hour (mas o menos) is used to determine how to best control the flow of patient traffic, and set up the stations. Sometimes the clinic is conducted in one room, other times it may be in school building where each classroom can be a separate station. Setting up the pharmacy is always the most time consuming operation.

Registering Registration begins shortly after the teams begin setting up their stations. There are always long lines of people waiting to be seen. A Guatemalan volunteer from the church, or the community, is the best candidate for this task. The registrar fills out a form listing the reason the person is seeing the doctor and conditions the doctor needs to know, such as allergies, pregnancy, etc. The registrar then directs the patient to the doctor/dental waiting area.

Doctor's Station
When the patient first arrives at the doctor's station a translator reads and translates the registration form for the doctor. The doctor then interviews, examines and treats the patient. Further treatment instructions and prescriptions are listed on the form which the patient (or team escort) takes to the pharmacy.

Pharmacy

The pharmacy team then fills the prescriptions, placing all medications in a bag. The patient (or a team escort) then takes the medications to the after-care station. The pharmacy also keeps the doctors informed of which medications are running low.

After-Care

The final station is After-Care where a nurse, or trained team member, helps the patients (through a translator) understand when and how their medications are to be taken or applied. The after-care team also insures that the patient is aware of any other treatments or diet the doctor prescribed.