Echo Techs Bring Heart Care to the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge

At Covenant Health, caring for our community means helping patients access vital healthcare services. Thanks to the vision and dedication of Covenant Health Parkwest cardiac sonographers, Alisha Ciglar and Marcie Ortega, patients at the Free Medical Clinic of Oak Ridge now have access to free echocardiograms.

Building the Program

Echocardiograms are ultrasound exams that take pictures of the heart, showing its structure and how well it is functioning. This exam can help diagnose various heart conditions, such as heart failure, blood clots, and heart valve disease.

In early 2025, Alisha had the idea to create a partnership with the Free Clinic. By September, the program was launched. She and Marcie organized a team of echo techs and students who volunteer their time once a month to perform echocardiograms.

Alisha also worked with Covenant Health officials to secure older echo equipment from Parkwest. With this donation, patients at the Free Clinic can now receive exams that would otherwise be unavailable.

Physicians Giving Back

Two Covenant Health physicians, Ayaz Rahman, MD, and Sara Negrotto, MD, also volunteer their time to clinically interpret the results of the exams. Their expertise ensures that patients receive accurate diagnoses and guidance for next steps in their care.

Why It Matters

Alisha explained the importance of the program: “These patients are struggling and don’t have insurance to go get an echo to discover what’s wrong with their heart. For these patients who cannot afford care, if we find something is truly wrong with their heart, the doctors can optimize their medications to improve their quality of life. Once these health problems are found, there are other programs that will help them gain insurance to help fund their future care.”

Teamwork and Dedication

Marcie, who has been a cardiac sonographer for over 25 years and serves as team lead structural sonographer at Parkwest, shared her enthusiasm for the project: “When Alisha first came to me about this idea, and how we could help people in our community, I said sign me up! There’s been a lot of collaborative communication between providers, sonographers, and different folks throughout Covenant Health who were willing to take a chance on this opportunity.”

She added: “There are a lot of patients who have symptoms they don’t complain about, especially when they can’t afford the more expensive testing, and may not get answers they need. An echocardiogram is painless, non-invasive, and we can determine so much from these exams. Getting these echo exams helps us provide important info to their providers and cardiologists. I’ve always been very driven to try to help community members and to give as much as I can to help patients.”

A Community Effort

This program has been made possible by the cardiac sonographers from Covenant Health Parkwest, who volunteer their time on their days off, as well as the support of Covenant Health’s cardiac leadership, nursing leadership, and privacy office. The Free Medical Clinic has also generously provided nursing and front office staff to support the effort.

Together, this collaboration is helping ensure that more patients in our community receive the heart care they need—proof that when healthcare professionals unite with compassion, innovation, and dedication, lives are changed for the better.

Our team is determined to make this the beginning, not the end. Alisha stated, “We will continue to find innovative ways to reach our patients who cannot reach us.”