Delivering Healthcare and Good News to the people of Juan Tomas

The Medical Clinic at Juan Tomas supports the delivery of medical guidance, care, and pharmaceuticals to village residents and the surrounding community.

Through its general healthcare and disease management, thousands of villagers receive evaluation and diagnosis, as well as referrals from qualified medical professionals, access to affordable medicines, and gospel truth.

The medical offices on campus are run by local resident RN Adagelis de la Cruz, who studied at Universidad Eugenio Maria de Hostos and are manned throughout the year by medical mission trips from the states. Adalgelis De La Cruz was a FoL English Class student who worked as a translator with early mission teams serving the medical clinic. So inspired by what she experienced during the mission, she went on to study nursing at the university.  She graduated in September of 2017 and was appointed to run the clinic year around as well as to be the school nurse.  

Juan Tomas Medical Clinic is located on the campus of the Fountain of Life School and the Iglesia Centro de Biblico Church. While government sponsored healthcare is available to all Dominicans, medications and diagnostics such as laboratory work and radiology testing come at a significant cost.  Many people cannot afford their medications.  It is also costly to get to the clinics, some 40 miles away, and some have difficulty getting into the city to get to the doctor. 

The Juan Tomas Medical Clinic is open on a daily basis and serves Hypertension patients as well as general wellness and disease treatment. The clinic is also used as the school clinic.  Students can come to see the clinic nurse for basic needs and concerns.

Every morning patients who are in the hypertension/diabetes clinic come to see the clinic nurse, Adalgelis De La Cruz.  She checks their blood pressure, refills their medications and educates them as needed to improve health outcomes.  At this time medications are provided to the patients at no cost.  There are over 300 patients in the hypertension/diabetic clinic. 

In 2012 Ashland University College of Nursing took a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic.  During the first medical mission trip with Ashland University, Dr. Aaron Young felt led to make a more permanent impact on health outcomes.  He also strongly believed that this would allow for patients to have more exposure to the gospel and to see the love of Christ in action.  Since this time, medical trips have routinely traveled to Juan Tomas to serve in the Medical Clinic for short periods of time. Mission teams for the Medical Clinic are U.S. residents with medical experience, U.S. residents with no medical experience, as well as the students from the Fountain of Life School English class that provide translation.  

Currently, medical teams continue to go into the country about twice a year.  These trips are open to anyone who is interested in healthcare.