Community Hospital, an Adventist healthcare institution, recently inaugurated a medical clinic across from the campus of the Adventist-run University of Southern Caribbean (USC) in St. Joseph, Port of Spain, Trinidad. The new clinic is a partnership between both institutions and provides quality medical services to the university community and the residents of Maracas Valley.
University and community members witnessed the opening of the USC Medical Clinic and took part in a special health fair initiative on campus on September 17, 2023, where everyone in attendance took part in a wide range of free healthcare services and resources on the importance of proactive health management.
The Honorable Esmond Forde, Trinidad and Tobago’s Member of Parliament for Tunapuna, commended the longstanding legacy of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s community engagement with community health. Forde celebrated the collaborative efforts of USC and Community Hospital, recognizing the clinic as a bold step that complements the government’s healthcare services.
Since the establishment of Community Hospital in 1948, the institution has been providing healthcare services and resources across Port of Spain and other communities, church leaders said.
“The new clinic represents a commitment to providing cost-effective and improved health services in the heart of the university campus, ensuring students, faculty, staff, and the surrounding community with high-quality healthcare services to improve their overall well-being,” said Stephen Carryl, M.D., Community Hospital administrator.
Colwick Wilson, president of USC, said the partnership will result in the strengthening of practical elements of the university’s existing and emerging curricula in the areas of nurse education, allied health, occupational therapy, social work, business management, and computer science through the offer of internships to students and other forms of mutually beneficial engagements. “This [collaboration] has already begun and will deepen in the medium and the long term,” said Dr. Wilson.
While Community Hospital is undergoing efforts to digitize their medical records, said Dr. Carryl, a partnership with the university “would be a fertile place for students of computer science and IT to see such a process play out and to participate in the same.” Dr. Carryl envisions Community Hospital and USC having a strategic relationship where “USC students would have a home at the hospital where they could rotate, and Community Hospital can emerge as a teaching hospital for USC students.”
The partnership between the institutions was prompted as both Carryl and Wilson, longtime friends for over 40 years, found themselves leading institutions in Trinidad recently and began to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the organizations they lead. This led to a realization that cooperation could create a whole that was greater than the sum of the parts, said Dr. Wilson. As the hospital planned to engage with the university’s healthcare service, the partnership later became more organized and focused. The venture moved to a selection of a joint leadership team and a thoughtful expansion of the list of services to be offered, said Dr. Wilson.
Already, there have been meaningful discussions with Trinidad’s Ministry of Health about the provision of services to special niches of the wider population in the nation, said Dr. Carryl.
The opening of The Community Hospital USC Medical Clinic Urgent Care included vision screenings, nutrition consultations, blood pressure and blood sugar testing, as well as free doctor’s consultations.
To learn more about The Community Hospital USC Medical Clinic Urgent Care, visit usc.edu.tt.
The original version of this story was posted on the Inter-American Division website.