Guiding new patients from other countries through the health care labyrinth

Providing a culturally comfortable medical home for low-income families is the goal of a new pediatric center.

By Susan J. Landers, AMNews staff. May 28, 2001.

Arlington, Va. -- This Washington, D.C., suburb built a center to care for its poorer children -- and the children came.

Among them: a 7-year-old Ethiopian girl, recently arrived in the United States. She had been on the same insulin dose for two years; no testing was being done and she was reusing needles. She was the size of a 4-year-old.

Another child was so anemic he was in congestive heart failure.

There was also a 3-year-old with an extremely low hemoglobin level.

The children seen at the Arlington Pediatric Center are often very sick. "We see virtually no uncomplicated cases," said Medical Director Susan DeMuth, MD. "The number of children given a straight-forward check-up I could count on one hand."

In the center's first three months, four children were taken to hospitals by the county's rescue squad, and three others were taken to the hospital by family or friends.

The center opened its doors this past January in a former storefront between a McDonald's and a sub shop and is enrolling more than 150 children each month.

That's great news for Dr. DeMuth, a pediatrician who grew up in a military family and has lived all over the world acquiring "a love of diversity," she said.

That quality serves her well in her brand-new facility with its eight-foot tall stuffed giraffe at the front door and tiny table and chairs in the waiting room.

Arlington is culturally and economically diverse. Children enrolled in its public schools hail from 88 countries represented by 66 native languages. An estimated 6,700 children live at or below the poverty level within its borders, yet it is in one of [...]