Today, OU-TU School of Community Medicine’s PA students and medical students take leading roles in the operation of the Bedlam and PAL Clinics, supervised by faculty clinicians. “The Bedlam Clinics provide quality, continuous care to many Tulsa-area patients with chronic disease who would otherwise often be in emergency rooms with one crisis after another,” says F. Daniel Duffy, M.D., previous Dean of the OU School of Community Medicine. “Helping to bring their diseases quickly under control has pulled many of them from the brink of serious health crises. They often tell us they don’t know what they’d do or where they’d go for treatment or medicines were it not for the Bedlam Clinics.”
The clinics deliver direct experience in the practice of community medicine, teaching students not only patient care skills but also exposing them to the challenges faced by uninsured individuals.