Long Wait in the Waiting Room

Dozens of Central American refugees line up each day at the Oscar Romero Clinic on Olympic Boulevard in a tedious quest for medical care. In a city where the public health system is strained beyond capacity, the clinic’s free services represent the only chance many of these patients have for treatment. Yet the 49 health professionals who volunteer at the facility can attend but half the people who fill the waiting rooms, and many must be turned away. “We don’t advertise, but the sick keep coming,” volunteer coordinator Oscar Lopez says. “Somehow they find us.” To guide the steady stream of patients, a nurse practitioner--the lone staff professional--and the corps of volunteers set up a form of triage, deciding who will be cared for immediately, who will be given an appointment to come back another day and who will be referred to another health facility. The Oscar Romero Clinic, a licensed free clinic founded in 1983, is named for the outspoken Roman Catholic archbishop of San Salvador who was slain 10 years ago as he presided over a Mass.