Pediatrician Dr. Jeff Schiff has volunteered one afternoon a week at People’s Health Clinic for the past six years. During that time, he’s conducted well-child visits, treated acute cases and helped children with chronic conditions like asthma and allergies as well as behavioral and mental health issues.
“Those are a lot of the things that are on a pediatrician's plate on any given day,” Schiff said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour,” Tuesday. “On top of that, the stresses that families are under impact kids. Financial stresses, stresses that can include the mental health of the parents as well. Those things impact kids as well, and we see that impact going from early childhood to teenage years and into adulthood.”
Schiff says the clinic has evolved into a more comprehensive primary case model with expanded specialty services.
“I would like to think that when I started, we were doing the best we could, and now we're trying to just do the best,” he said.
The wait time to see a pediatrician at the clinic is about eight weeks, but Schiff says that should improve soon.
“One of the things that we're really excited about here is to move from an all-volunteer pediatric department to a pediatric department where we'll have a paid physician that's aligned with Primary Children's,” what about making this more of the headline instead? he said. “All of us who are volunteers love what we do, but we're not ready to sign on for three days a week or four days a week, so we're really excited to have the opportunity to work with somebody.”
The People’s Health Clinic provides routine wellness exams, developmental screenings and immunizations for children with the help of three volunteer pediatricians.
Click here for more information about the services the People’s Health Clinic offers.
