BREMERTON, WA | by Tad Sooter | March 2, 2019
Original article can be found at: https://www.kitsapsun.com
BREMERTON — Peninsula Community Health Services is taking its medical care on the road to reach patients who don’t check in to brick-and-mortar clinics.
Beginning this month, a 38-foot-long bus, equipped with two private exam rooms and a portable lab, will bring health care to homeless shelters, food banks and other community centers around the county.
Medical providers aboard the wheelchair-accessible bus will provide nearly all the same primary care services available in the health center’s permanent clinics, including checkups, vaccinations, treatment of illnesses and injuries, disease screenings and care for chronic conditions.
“It’s a clinic that happens to move,” Peninsula Community Health CEO Jennifer Kreidler-Moss said.
The rolling clinic is intended to provide access to patients who wouldn’t typically seek care at one of the group’s stationary locations. Kreidler-Moss said that of the Medicaid patients assigned to the non-profit health center, about 2,000 don’t check in at clinics each year.
“We believe there is a subset of patients who have trouble accessing a clinical setting,” she said. “Sometimes trying to force patients into a rigid structure just isn’t the answer.”
Barriers to those patients accessing services could include a lack of transportation or stable housing, or struggles with a behavioral health condition. The mobile primary care unit was designed to make it as easy as possible for patients to see a medical provider.
“The goal of the mobile clinic is to go where people already are,” Peninsula Community Health associate medical director Anthony Lyon-Loftus said. “If they’re already at the Salvation Army, we want to already be at the Salvation Army too.”
Stops across county
The Sixth Street shelter was mobile the clinic’s first destination on its inaugural run last Friday. The bus will make regular stops at Bay Vista in West Bremerton, South Kitsap Helpline, the Sylvan Way and Port Orchard library branches, North Kitsap Fishline, Central Kitsap Food Bank and Port Orchard First Lutheran Church. More stops could be added.
Anthony Lyon-Loftus, with Peninsula Community Health Services, opens up the computer work station in of the exam rooms inside the mobile primary care unit.Buy Photo
Anthony Lyon-Loftus, with Peninsula Community Health Services, opens up the computer work station in of the exam rooms inside the mobile primary care unit. (Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)
The mobile clinic will be staffed by a physician assistant, qualified to administer basic primary care, and a medical assistant. Patients must enroll with Peninsula Community Health to receive care and can sign up through the mobile clinic.
A community health worker will be on hand to help patients find health insurance if needed. Providers can access digital medical records aboard the bus using a satellite internet link. The mobile clinic will make some scheduled appointments available at each stop, while making time for unscheduled, walk-in visits.
There are some basic services the rolling clinic can’t offer for logistical reasons.The providers can’t set casts, for example, because there’s no X-ray on board to help evaluate injuries. The mobile unit also won’t carry prescription medications.
Patients who need more advanced care will be referred to one of the Peninsula clinics or outside providers. Prescriptions will be filled at the pharmacy of their choice.
“There’s an entire team for all our practices,” Kreidler-Moss said.
A fleet of clinics
Peninsula Community Health’s mobile medical clinic will be joined early this year by a mobile behavioral health unit, staffed by a mental health counselor, chemical dependency professional and community health worker.
Peninsula Community Health’s Mobile Primary Care gets on the road on Wednesday.Buy Photo
Peninsula Community Health’s Mobile Primary Care gets on the road on Wednesday. (Photo: MEEGAN M. REID / KITSAP SUN)
The behavioral health clinic, partially funded by the county’s sales tax for mental health, will provide mental health counseling and substance-use disorder treatment, including medication-assisted treatment for opioid use. Patients have to be established with primary care providers at Peninsula Community health to access behavioral health services.
Peninsula Community Health also requested $340,000 from the Legislature this session to create a mobile dental clinic. The clinic would serve both Kitsap and Mason counties.
Kreidler-Moss said the group is tapping grant money to get the mobile clinics rolling but expects the units will be able to cover their own operating costs, once established.
“Our goal is to sustain them based just on billing,” Kreidler-Moss said.
For information, go to pchsweb.org or call 360-377-3776.
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