Lots of windshield time living out here and providing health care in these communities. Presidio is 90 miles to the nearest U.S. hospital. We've had patients show up in the back of pickup trucks with CPR in progress. At least two of those patients, they did not make it. That's what I fear, letting these communities and these patients down. All these facilities who are located in this underserved area, it's a big challenge to recruit for them.
How are you? I am fine. How are you, V? Good to see you. This is Daniel. He is a fourth year medical student. We might be able to recruit him back in three and a half years. As a rural family physician, you're needed in the hospital. You're needed in the emergency room. You're often needed in the clinic. Presidio has not had its own physician for over 20 years. So our physicians that live here in Alpine, one day a week each of us went down that 180 mile round trip down to Presidio to provide access to health care.
Hi, how are you? How can I help you? We have plenty of doctors right now. We have Dr. Billings. The Health Workforce Connector is one of the tools that we use to advertise to all the National Health Service Corps trainees in the nation. Good job. Thank you. We're all part of the team. It's a free federal service that HRSA, the Health Resource Service Administration, provides to us, and it allows us to recruit clinicians who otherwise we may have never been on their radar. It used to be just a job posting list, but we have helped them transition from this paper-based system to completely digital, from a tool to a platform.
If you don't grow up in a rural area, you probably don't realize how hard it is to drive three hours to get a mammogram done. I wanted to find a clinic where I could take time to provide quality care. So I looked on the Health Workforce Connector. It is sort of a LinkedIn for doctors, so to speak. That's how I like to think about it, by allowing sites and clinicians to connect directly. Ideally, they are finding a match. We are placing clinicians in a place that from the get-go, they're more likely to stay.
There used to be a dentist that would come here once a month. My husband and I were the first dentists that are here full-time, that actually live here in Presidio. Now people understand the importance of preventive care. We don't hear about the everyday stories of those in the rural areas, but these stories are just so important because collectively, they make up so much of America.
Out here, being such a small town, you do come across your patients quite a bit. You meet them in the grocery store, you see them at ballgames, and it's really nice just to be able to connect outside of the hospital. When you really believe in the mission and the cause, a lot of good things happen. A lot of patients didn't come to the clinic because they didn't have that trust with the providers. So now that I'm here, a lot of people in the area, in the community, are coming to the clinic. There is empathy that we bring to our work, our feet. This isn't just a job to us. It's about making sure that we are having the right impact and that we're seeing the change. I'm significantly hopeful because I see our team is growing, and they're not fearful. They say, we got this. We got your back. So I feel very much that we're going to make things better for our vulnerable populations. Thank you.