2007年VOA标准英语-Private Medical Group Brings Health Care to Poo

By Jeffrey Young
Washington
29 May 2007
 

To most Americans, the governments in their towns and regional areas called counties are the governments they interact with the most.  And alongside these local governments are groups of citizens who work on their own to make life better. In this segment of a multi-part series, VOA's Jeffrey Young focuses on a private-sector¹ initiative in Montgomery County, Maryland meant to ensure health care for all.

When you are sick or injured, you need a doctor. If you're in Montgomery County, Maryland and can't fully² pay for treatment, there is MobileMed.

MobileMed brings health care services to county residents

Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C., has plenty of doctors and health facilities. But, as is common across the United States, it takes cash or health insurance to get medical care.  That is why, 40 years ago, several Montgomery County doctors formed a non-governmental, non-profit organization called Mobile Medical Care -- MobileMed for short. 

MobileMed Executive Director Bob Spector says a lot of people need help.  "Mobile Med serves more than 5,000 of the most vulnerable residents in Montgomery County, that for a variety of reasons have no access to health care. They have no insurance. They are out of work. They are recent immigrants."

MobileMed serves the community through 19 clinics and three mobile vans that are doctors' offices on wheels. The vans and other facilities were made possible because of partnerships³ MobileMed has with several area hospitals, major charities, private sector sponsors and the government of Montgomery County. Patients only pay a small sum for their visits and treatment.

The clinics and vans are staffed by nearly 30 medical personnel, including nurse practitioner⁴ Barbara Beuchert.  She says she and her colleagues see just about every illness.

"They come [to MobileMed] for chest pain, they come for women's health, they come for cough, back pain, [and] headaches. And many times, we find much more serious medical problems with them," she adds. 

Kodjovi Messie is a doctor who emigrated from the West African nation of Togo. He says there are a number of people who come to MobileMed with serious illnesses that have often gone undiagnosed and treated.

"When they [patients] don't have medical insurance, they don't see doctors as often as they should.  And when they come here, we find out that a lot of them have had diabetes⁵ and high blood pressure and didn't even know [it]," says the doctor.

In order to best communicate with Montgomery County's sizeable immigrant population, MobileMed employs many staffers who also come from those parts of the world.  Haney Shamil  says she is a welcome face. "When Ethiopian patients come here, to see somebody who speaks their language, and see somebody who knows their culture, it makes them feel very comfortable."

MobileMed's staff speaks at least eight languages, and there are clinics that focus on immigrants from China, Korea, Iran, Hispanic countries, the Horn of Africa, and French West Africa and Haiti.

Having such language and cultural abilities enables medical personnel to get more detailed⁶ information about illnesses and problems in order to best treat them.

MobileMed's staff could earn far higher salaries in private clinics. But they say this is not a matter of money. It's a matter of feeling responsible for the well-being⁷ of others.

1 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

4 practitioner   

n.实践者，从事者；(医生或律师等)开业者

参考例句：

• He is an unqualified practitioner of law.他是个无资格的律师。
• She was a medical practitioner before she entered politics.从政前她是个开业医生。

5 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

6 detailed   

adj.详细的，详尽的，极注意细节的，完全的

参考例句：

• He had made a detailed study of the terrain.他对地形作了缜密的研究。
• A detailed list of our publications is available on request.我们的出版物有一份详细的目录备索。

7 well-being   

n.安康，安乐，幸福

参考例句：

• He always has the well-being of the masses at heart.他总是把群众的疾苦挂在心上。
• My concern for their well-being was misunderstood as interference.我关心他们的幸福，却被误解为多管闲事。