Urban Quincy and My First Time in MO.

[From a couple of days ago, but got misplaced on my blog page]

I probably should address something sooner rather than later. Quincy really isn't rural. It has a population of about 40,000 people, a university, the local NBC affiliate (WGEM), a pro-am baseball team (Go Gems!) and a regional airport (GEM...just kidding, actually UIN) with commercial puddlejumper connections to St Louis (STL) and Kansas City (MCI). There are strip malls with most major fast food joints, as well as a Starbuck's, Panera, TGIFriday's, etc. The description of suburb-sans-urb is a reasonable approximation for people whose frame of reference is Chicago or any other major metropolitan center; but Quincy is legitimately its own urban-suburban center rolled into one.

Having said all that, I spent the afternoon today at a prenatal care clinic on the other side of the Mississippi River, in the town of Monticello, MO (pop 200). The county seat of Lewis County (county population less than 10,000), Monticello has three buildings: a gas station, a house, and the Lewis County Public Health Department. Every two weeks, two medical residents and an attending physician set up shop with one of the public health nurses at the Health Department building (pictured above) to provide prenatal care to the expectant mothers of Lewis County. This is a gem of a program. Many of these mothers - a few of whom come in from area Horse-and-Buggy Mennonite and Amish communities - would not otherwise be able to get regular prenatal care; but through this clinic, they can get checkups, lab work, and referrals for ultrasounds back in Quincy when needed. Apparently there is only one other prenatal clinic like this in the entire state of Missouri, and one of the nurses estimates that 60% of the expectant mothers in the county who wouldn't otherwise get prenatal care do get care because of the Monticello clinic.

And the care that the women get is great. An undeniable spirit of teamwork exists between the patients and the care providers. The doctor I was working with knew exactly how to explain things to patients in a manner that was informative, yet friendly and conversational. In one visit, the doctor used stories about her own first pregnancy to illustrate what to expect in the second trimester while the young first-time expectant mother asked questions as if talking to a good friend rather than a professional stranger. I hardly think the doctor and that patient will meet up later to do their nails and gossip about what happened today on Living Lohan; but I have confidence that not only did the patient come away from the appointment knowing what to do until her next checkup, but also that she will actually show up for her next checkup. With any population anywhere, this is no small feat.