UCSF medical students Jasmine Lai and Billy Cordon during a break
from translating for patients and assisting surgeons during Operation
Access's Super Surgery Day
Photo: Melissa Ovalles

It has become customary for the School of Medicine to send out "Thanks a Latte!" cards to our staff in the Spring, in addition to sponsoring staff appreciation celebrations in each department. The card, typically a $3 value, is a small token of appreciation; yet given that the school has nearly 5,500 staff employees, the amounts can add up. This became apparent with the alternative, introduced last year, to donate the card to a UCSF-affiliated charity rather than cashing it in for a well-deserved latte.

Once again, the donation alternative proved to be very popular, and the value of the donated cards added up to two significant contributions: $3,294.00 went to Operation Access and $1,539.00 to the Voluntary Services at the UCSF-affiliated Veterans Administration Medical Center.

Both of these organizations are greatly respected in the community.

The Voluntary Services at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) represent 29 organizations that assist VA staff in aiding and motivating patients to early recovery, purposeful living and adjusting to community living.

Amy Teragawa has been volunteering at the San Francisco VA Medical Center for 30 years. In addition, for the past 15 years she has volunteered one day a week at UCSF.

"We are very appreciative of the generosity of the employees of the UCSF School of Medicine," said Sheila M. Cullen, SF VA Medical Center Director. "This donation will help support our many programs and activities for hospitalized veterans."

Operation Access was co-founded by Dr. Bill Schechter, Professor of Clinical Surgery at UCSF and Chief of Surgery at SFGH. The organization serves uninsured individuals who do not have the means to pay for outpatient surgery.

UCSF faculty and students regularly volunteer with OA. Jasmine Lai, currently a third-year medical student, feels that Operation Access is by far one of the most significant organizations she has been involved in in terms of its impact on the community.

"Each Operation Access session is a finely orchestrated event involving several hundred hours of volunteer time preparation, cumulating in the hernia repair surgery, the cyst removal, the cataract surgery that will drastically improve our patients' quality of life", she recounts her experience.

"In a world of health care cynicism, I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to be involved as a volunteer with Operation Access, as it is a breath of fresh air for medical students who want to serve and make a positive impact on their communities, regardless of their patients' ability to pay."