We have one at Tulane, and it's very well run. I'm not part of the leadership (although I'm a 2nd year, and it's coordinated by 2nd years), but I have a decent idea of how it works. Some things you'll want to have thought about:
1) A physician to supervise you, who can be counted on to be there.
2) Record-keeping: this is also mandatory, so you need to have charts prepared. They don't have to be like hospital charts. But the first year students working there might appreciate a history form with prompts for various essential pieces of information.
3) How are you going to keep track of these charts? They take up space, and you may or may not have patients who return. So whose job will it be to keep track of the charts?
4) Medications: no one will come if you can diagnose, but not treat. Call your State Board of Pharmacy and ask them what the regulations are for medication procurement and dispensing for a free clinic. Also ask them if you are allowed to use expired drugs, and to solicit donations of expired non-controlled-substance drugs from local pharmacies. Normally, these are returned to the manufacturer for a full refund. You can also try to locate drug reps from the big pharmaceutical companies, and ask if their company would be willing to donate their expired returned drugs. Or you could call the Medical Board. I'm sure they'd be able to give you advice as well.
5) What's your patient population? This will determine which drugs you really HAVE to have.
6) Is there a place to examine patients in private? Exam tables? Basic equipment? (i.e. blood pressure cuffs, oto/ophthalmoscope, blood glucose testing kit, urine dipsticks, and whatever else you can get donated or have money to buy.
7) dispensing supplies--this goes with #4&5, but I only thought of it just now. You'll need pill containers (a big one and a little one), caps (sold separately), dispensing tray & spatula (hit up a drug rep), and labels (easy to make on your computer). Again, call the State Board of pharmacy to find out the minimum information that needs to go on the label. I imagine it would be handled like samples, so you could probably get away with very minimal info.
8) I'm sure there are more issues, but I can't think of any right now.
In general, the workflow goes like this: student calls for patient in the waiting area, escorts him (we don't see females-it's part of a rehab program for men w/ substance abuse problems) to the exam room, which is just an exam table separated from the other tables by a curtain. The 1st or 2nd year does the interview, then presents that info to the 3rd year, who does the exam, figures out what seems to be wrong, and comes up with recommendations. The 3rd year presents all of that to the physician, who agrees or disagrees (which then entails some teaching) and goes in to talk to and examine the patient himself (with very focused questions and exam). The final plan is determined, and the students get the medications ready and explain to the patient what to do and how to take them, and then send him on his way.
So the physician ends up seeing anywhere from 15-30 patients in the space of 2-3 hours, and each patient gets a thorough exam, and the students get to practice whatever skills they've learned up to that point. It's a really neat program. Every school should have this kind of thing, but I think it's actually pretty rare. But maybe not for long.
