Medical Team

From Head to Toe Care

From Head to Toe Care

Health Care Without Walls volunteer physicians have staff level practices with backgrounds in Cardiology, Dermatology, Family Practice, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Pediatrics and Psychiatry.  Our physicians have been trained at the country’s best medical schools including Boston University, Case Western Reserve, Harvard, and Temple University as well as Guy’s Hospital in London.  When not volunteering for Health Care Without Walls, they maintain active attending staff positions at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston Medical Center, Caritas Norwood Hospital, Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, MA Rehab, MGH, New England Baptist Hospital, and Tufts Medical Center.  Members of our clinical team speak English, French, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish.

All our doctors and nurses are required to have an active Massachusetts license, certification to dispense prescriptions and malpractice coverage. To represent the volunteers’ point of view, volunteer physicians serve on the board of directors.

Recognizing that many doctors and other medical professionals want to ‘give back’ but lack the connections, the proper equipment or the nursing support to do so, Health Care Without Walls makes volunteering as simple as possible. From the interview process on, the Medical Director works to create a good match between the doctor and a shelter site. She orients the doctors to the cultural and medical world of the homeless, provides training and ongoing supervision.

Once assigned to her site, the doctor simply arrives

at a regularly scheduled time, sets out a clipboard for sign-up and sees patients on a first come, first served basis. There are no insurance forms to fill out. In the busiest shelters, there is always a nurse who provides clinical continuity for the next shift. When the volunteer is done, she can leave and return to her regular job.