The BFC is a student‐run free clinic that provides primary care services to uninsured adults in the Bedford‐Stuyvesant community. With the guidance of volunteer physicians and faculty advisors, our students help provide care and health maintenance screening to enrolled patients, as well as grant them access to a network of no‐cost specialty referral services. Students who volunteer at the clinic are highly motivated learners with a dedication to community service. We rely upon the support and generosity of the SUNY Downstate Medical Center community in order to provide these free, high‐quality services to our patients.

The attending physician must be licensed in New York State and able to provide primary care services to patients over 18 years of age. The attending supervises patient care and reviews assessments and plans. He or she coaches clinical teams regarding thorough patient care and provides constructive feedback to the students. The attending must review notes and sign off on all charts and is the only person who can prescribe medications. Additionally, patients cannot be seen at the clinic until the attending is onsite. There is no minimum commitment that we require of our attending physicians in terms of the number of evenings volunteered per month or year. Patients are scheduled at the clinic from 5:30 to 8:30 pm on Tuesday evenings and the attending physician for each night must be present during these hours. The attending physician often conducts a closing meeting at the end of the clinic shift to discuss patients seen that day. There are no other obligations outside of clinic hours.

This is a clinical elective operated by the College of Medicine. Students are covered as they are for any other clinical activity at Downstate or our affiliates. Attending physicians are registered as clinical instructors and covered under Downstate’s medical liability insurance. Additionally, an item describing this mentoring responsibility is included in their job description by their department chair.

Becoming a volunteer attending physician at the BFC is a simple process with minimal paperwork. If you are a physician affiliated with SUNY Downstate Medical Center, you only need a letter from your department chair; we can provide a template to you. For all other physicians, you need to fill out a two page form in order to obtain a voluntary faculty appointment at SUNY Downstate Medical Center; this will allow you to be covered under Downstate’s medical liability insurance.

If you cannot volunteer as an attending physician at the BFC, you can volunteer as an advisor for the BFC Cares program, or help recruit other physicians to volunteer at the BFC. If you are interested in helping in any way, please contact our Chief Communications

Officer, Tom Newman, at CCO@brooklynfreeclinic.org.