Medical Office Technology Program forms meaningful partnership with Crossings Community Clinic

Metro Tech Medical Office Technology graduate Jazsmyn Coutrier interviewed for 13 jobs and received offers from all 13 after her graduation from Metro Tech, but her heart and passion was at her intern site: Crossings Community Clinic in Edmond. As a brand-new, non-profit clinic for the uninsured, Crossings did not yet have adequate funding to hire Jazsmyn as a full-time employee, so she waited.

Within a year, Jazsmyn was hired as the full-time volunteer manager and later promoted to clinic manager. She serves on Ms. Balliet's advisory board for the Medical Technology Program, is a regular guest speaker to current students; and she assisted Ms. Balliet in creating a Memo of Understanding with Crossings Clinic to build a successful internship program. To date, Ms. Balliet has sent eight interns to Crossings Clinic, working in areas such as patient records, medical front office, scheduling and referrals.

During the holiday season in 2016, Ms. Balliet's current class chose the Crossings Clinic as a community service project. Jaszmyn identified five families that would not have Thanksgiving dinner without assistance, and Ms. Balliet's students worked tirelessly to collect and organize contents into baskets that fed all five families. The class is now working on collecting $4 Wal-Mart gift cards to help patients pay for prescriptions.

According to Ms. Balliet, the partnership with Crossings Clinic is broad and continues to grow.

"This is a full-circle type of story, from the Metro Tech student who has accomplished so much to the industry partnership that keeps expanding and the community involvement of my students. We feel blessed to be connected to such a wonderful organization," she said.

Crossings Community Church opened a $7 million community center and clinic as part of the church's commitment to the surrounding area. Since it's inception, the clinic has seen more than 32,000 uninsured patients and provided more than $12 million in medical and dental care, relying on 650 volunteers that include licensed physicians, nurses, dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, eye care providers and mental health providers.