The health clinic is sponsored by the indigenous villages. It usually has a delivery room, a room for hospital treatment, a doctor's office, a dentist's office, a pharmacy with basic medications, a storage room and a bathroom.
Medical check-ups in the health clinics are done by the "health promoters", sometimes assisted by a registered nurse.
The "promotores"are indigenous persons trained by ASCIM. This training is formal and practical and takes about 3 years. They have been taught to give general check-ups, to diagnose the sicknesses and to prescribe medication. The check-ups with the promotores are usually held Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. On the other days of the week the activities are more outside of the clinic and of a preventative nature, like visiting the villages and giving the vaccinations, checking pregnant women, etc.
One of the doctors of the hospital Yalve Sanga visits each locality once or twice the month to do check-ups. Usually , the promoter lines up the patients he/she recommends for doctor's appointments. If there is enough time, other patients may attend out of their own initiative.
If the patient cannot be satisfactorily checked by the promoter, the ambulance of ASCIM is called, but this is only done if the doctor has been previously consulted. This service is a service financed by ASCIM's private medical insurance.
In most cases, the ambulance takes the patient to the hospital in Yalve Sanga. Here, more tests are done and medical treatment can begin, if at all possible. Some patients have to be brought to other hospitals in the area, in extreme cases even to Asuncion, the capital city.