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San Xavier Indian Health Service Clinic

Site Coordinator: Brenda Neufeld, MD

1 Student per period

7900 South J. Stock Road
Tucson, AZ 85746
(South of Tucson, east of I-19 across from San Xavier Mission)

Housing: N/A

Mileage: compensation not provided by FCM

Residency: No
100% with attending

Hospital Affiliation:
Sells IHS Hospital

Daily # of FP Patients: 90

Patients Population Profile:
Tohono O'odham, Navajo and other Native Americans (few Spanish-speaking)

Five FP doctors, 1 Internist, 2 Pediatricians and full community health staff
Dental, eye, psych, podiatry, lab, x-ray and pharmacy all on-site
Diabetes program
Ortho, rheumatology, cardiology monthly specialty clinics
Pediatric developmental clinic twice monthly

Flex-time Activities:

Podiatry clinic; multiple social services
Emergency room evenings at Sells
Home visits on the San Xavier Reservation
TB clinic 1/2 day alternate months

Insurance Spectrum:
Population-based, single-payer IHS system; provides comprehensive health care to Native Americans

Specific Site Info:

Innovative medical records/data base with automatic problem list updates

Comments from Dr. Neufeld:

"Working at the San Xavier Health Center provides a mix of rural and urban medicine with a degree of continuity that is quite rare in medicine today. Contact with urban Native Americans from many tribes including the Tohono O'odham tribe has been very enriching. We have a caring and talented medical staff, as well as a very dedicated nursing and support staff. I have interests in prenatal care and rheumatology. Other physicians have interests in geriatrics, behavioral medicine, and colposcopy. In addition, students have opportunities to work with podiatry and public health nursing. Students generally find this site to be very stimulating, offering a volume and spectrum of clinical challenges that may be different from what they have previously experienced."

Comments from Students:

"I had a wonderful time at San Xavier because Dr. Neufeld and the rest of the team have created a productive, efficient setup for medical students."

"Wonderful experience - made me interested in IHS."

"There was a huge variety of patient problems. However, there were a few problems that tended to come up a lot, such as diabetes and asthma, so I left the rotation feel pretty comfortable with these diseases in particular."

"The best aspect of this site is the variety of clinics to work in. The doctors and nurses were really wonderful teachers. The patients were all very interesting people and culturally different from he norm in Tucson."

"There is a great variety of patients - treated patients from Peds to OB to chronic illness in older persons. Very helpful staff who really encouraged learning in a supportive way."

"The staff was very helpful and friendly. I was able to see a lot of patients with a wide variety of problems and was included in their treatment plans. I saw many children, prenatals, acute problems and chronic maintenance/preventative health.."

"Dr. Brenda Neufeld is very enthusiastic and up-to-date on clinical knowledge."

Location http://www.fcm.arizona.edu/index.cfm/1,134,393,0,html