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From right: President Bush jokes with UNMC’s Kristine McVea, M.D., at OneWorld Community Health Center as the clinic’s CEO, Andrea Skolkin, and Gov. Dave Heineman look on. |
But that was the case on Dec. 5 for Kristine McVea, M.D., associate professor in UNMC’s Department of Family Medicine, who visited with President Bush during his visit to Omaha’s OneWorld Community Health Center. Dr. McVea is the clinic’s medical director.
The president stopped by OneWorld during his Omaha visit to stump for U.S. Senate candidate Mike Johanns. Bush has repeatedly lauded community health centers such as OneWorld for providing “a very vital service.”
“I happen to think they’re an integral part of a health care system because they provide care for the low-income, for the newly arrived, and they take the pressure off of our hospital emergency rooms,” Bush said during his visit to the clinic.
OneWorld is in Omaha’s historic Livestock Exchange Building at 4920 S. 30th St., and offers health care services to underserved populations. Aside from Dr. McVea, several UNMC faculty members serve as volunteers at the clinic.
During his visit, the president spent 20 minutes in a meeting with Dr. McVea and other clinic staff and asked about the clinic’s patient population, how the clinic recruited physicians and other workers, and how the public-partnership that supports the clinic worked.
Bush also took time to visit the clinic’s patients, often pulling up a chair for one-on-one chats.
“Many of our patients speak Spanish, as does the president,” Dr. McVea said. “He jokingly referred to himself as ‘Jorge’ when talking with our Spanish-speaking patients.”
Before the visit, clinic staff prepared for a very regimented meeting with Bush, but during the actual visit, the president went about business casually — holding lighthearted conversations and joking with patients and staff.
Bush was particularly pleased to see one OneWorld physician — a Yale graduate — wearing a sweatshirt from her alma mater.
“My daughter went there,” said the president, who also graduated from the Ivy League school in 1968.
It was an honor to host the president at OneWorld, Dr. McVea said.
“He was so nice and personable — very down-to-earth,” Dr. McVea said. “I was very happy to meet him and have him visit our clinic.”
Click here to see an official White House news release about Bush’s visit to OneWorld and click here to see more about the clinic.