{"647722":{"#nid":"647722","#data":{"type":"news","title":"For the Greater Good: Tech Community Supports Good Samaritan Health Center","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EOne year ago, Good Samaritan\u0026nbsp;Health Center, more commonly known as Good Sam in the Atlanta area,\u0026nbsp;launched a Covid-19 helpline open to all Good Sam patients and the community at large with the purpose of providing accurate Covid-19 information, connecting patients with providers, and\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;scheduling Covid-19 tests and vaccination appointments.\u0026nbsp;Helpline volunteers have taken 30,000 calls, scheduled 20,000 Covid-19 tests,\u0026nbsp;connected patients with providers, and supported the vaccination appointment process. The helpline is now operating in more than 15 other clinics.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EForty of Good Sam\u0026rsquo;s helpline volunteers have been Georgia Tech students, making up\u0026nbsp;much of\u0026nbsp;the volunteer pool throughout the year.\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003EPriyasha Pareek, a Tech\u0026nbsp;alumna, previously volunteered with Good Samaritan\u0026nbsp;as a medical assistant\u0026nbsp;before the pandemic.\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;I was\u0026nbsp;devastated\u0026nbsp;because I absolutely love working at Good Sam, so I reached out to see if there were any other\u0026nbsp;ways that\u0026nbsp;I could support\u0026nbsp;the clinic\u0026rsquo;s efforts,\u0026rdquo; she said. As a result, she became one of the first helpline volunteers, and eventually was named co-captain of the helpline team.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ERitika Kumar, another Georgia Tech graduate, wanted to give back to her community after her college experience ended\u0026nbsp;unexpectedly\u0026nbsp;in March 2020.\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;I, like many others, felt unable to do anything other than stay home.\u0026nbsp;I was fortunate enough to begin volunteering at Good Samaritan.\u0026rdquo; Her experiences\u0026nbsp;highlighted\u0026nbsp;the simple yet meaningful ways\u0026nbsp;that the helpline provided support.\u0026nbsp;After a call with an elderly client struggling to access Covid-19 test results due to\u0026nbsp;password requirements, Kumar recognized the value of this kind of support.\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;It highlighted\u0026nbsp;that the barrier\u0026nbsp;to patient care often lies\u0026nbsp;outside of medicine,\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;she said.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ECurrent Tech student Uswa Khan\u0026nbsp;serves as a community coordinator for the helpline and found that her experience aligned\u0026nbsp;closely with one of her classes at Georgia Tech, Sociology of Health and Illness. \u0026ldquo;Having these\u0026nbsp;[classroom and volunteer experience] parallels\u0026nbsp;opened my eyes to the vast sociological issues in healthcare access,\u0026rdquo; Khan said. She also wants others to understand the impact that a small group of people can make in any area of life they\u0026rsquo;d like to give their time and energy to.\u0026nbsp;\u0026ldquo;I have seen how willing Tech students are to help their surrounding communities.\u0026rdquo;\u0026nbsp;\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n\r\n\u003Cp\u003ETo learn more about the Good Samaritan initiative and how you can get involved, visit\u0026nbsp;\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/goodsamatlanta.org\/\u0022\u003Egoodsamatlanta.org\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EForty of Good Sam\u0026rsquo;s helpline volunteers have been Georgia Tech students, making up\u0026nbsp;much of\u0026nbsp;the volunteer pool throughout the year.\u003C\/p\u003E\r\n","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Forty of Good Sam\u2019s helpline volunteers have been Georgia Tech students, making up\u00a0much of\u00a0the volunteer pool throughout the year."}],"uid":"35052","created_gmt":"2021-05-25 12:30:49","changed_gmt":"2021-05-25 12:32:26","author":"mcarter80","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2021-05-25T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2021-05-25T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"647723":{"id":"647723","type":"image","title":"good same","body":null,"created":"1621945920","gmt_created":"2021-05-25 12:32:00","changed":"1621945920","gmt_changed":"2021-05-25 12:32:00","alt":"good sam logo","file":{"fid":"245881","name":"gs-color2019.png","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gs-color2019.png","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/gs-color2019.png","mime":"image\/png","size":6563,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/gs-color2019.png?itok=Czc7SveC"}}},"media_ids":["647723"],"groups":[{"id":"1182","name":"General"},{"id":"1269","name":"Student Life"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}