Maggie McKay (Host): St. Joseph Hospital serves the entire community, but also has an added option for serving our most at risk community members. Let's find out more about it with Rosemary Ford, Director of the Mobile Health Clinic. Welcome to Wellness First, a St. Joseph Hospital podcast where we hear and learn directly from the experts on all things health and wellness.

I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Hi, Rosemary. It's so great to have you here. Would you please introduce yourself?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Yes. Hi, my name is Rosemary Ford. I'm the System Director of Interpreter Services and our Mobile Health Clinic. I've been with the organization for 14 years and it's a pleasure to speak with you today.

Host: Great. Could you tell us about the mission and the goals of the St. Joseph Hospital Mobile Health Clinic?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Yes. So our mobile health clinic is out in our community on average four times a week. And we are out providing non urgent walk-in care to anyone in our community. Folks who may be vulnerable to the housing shortages, homeless, not able to access brick and mortar health care and we also go to businesses as well.

So we're out to serve any of our community members because our motto is everyone is cared for here.

Host: And what inspired the creation of the mobile health clinic and how has it evolved since its inception?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Well, through our community needs assessment, we saw that there was opportunities to serve our most vulnerable populations who are having difficulties accessing healthcare. And those are for multitudes of reasons. So, the mobile health clinic came about so that we could partner with our non-profit local community members and serve folks who are most in need, whether that be for wound care or diabetes management, preventative heart health assessments, the list goes on.

But there was this great need that was identified and the clinic was born to roll out, throughout the greater Nashua area.

Host: Can you describe the types of health care services provided by the mobile health clinic and how those services meet the needs of the community?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Yes. So we have a staff of Nurse Practitioners, RNs, of course we have a driver and a patient service representative that all man the mobile health clinic. And we are literally a doctor's office on wheels. So, when we're out in the community, we can provide non-urgent walk-in care. Our nurse practitioners can provide a multitude of point of care testing, such as pregnancy testing, blood glucose, HIV testing, hepatitis testing, flu and COVID testing, and we could also write prescriptions.

We see folks for all different types of reasons. Some people just want to have their blood pressure checked. Some people are seeing us because they have sinus infections, wound care needs. You name it, we see people just like you can in a doctor's office, brick and mortar.

Host: Rosemary, how does the mobile health clinic partner with local non profit organizations like the Day Cafe and the Nashua Soup Kitchen and Shelter to reach those in need?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: So we have strong community partnerships with the folks that you mentioned and more. And that took some time. We really needed to build these relationships with our local community members, find out what are the needs, and then also have the space to be able to park our mobile health clinic, so that folks can directly and accessibly come see us for clinical care. We make sure that our mobile clinic has a consistent schedule so that folks know where we'll be and can rely on the mobile health clinic to be available to them. So for example, we're at the Day cafe every Wednesday morning, we're there 7am to 10:15am.

We're at the Nashua Library every Monday and every Wednesday, and folks know our schedule. They rely on us being there, and our community partners help direct the flow of patient traffic towards us to the vulnerable populations that they see, and encourage folks to come and be treated for whatever their healthcare needs are during any given day.

Host: What a great idea, you guys have thought of everything, literally. You mentioned parking, how long is the mobile clinic?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Geez, well, I couldn't tell you measurements off the top of my head, but we take up about two parking spaces. We're literally an RV. Our RV has two exam rooms on it, so we're able to see patients in the back of our mobile health clinic. We have a consult room where patients are registered and where they can wait until it's their turn to be seen. And then we have another exam room for folks.

Host: And what challenges do you encounter in providing mobile healthcare? How do you and your team overcome them?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: I would say one of the biggest challenges is establishing rapport and trust with our community members. It does take some relationship building and time. So when we first started rolling out, a lot of our outreach was getting out of the mobile health clinic, walking up to our community members, just introducing ourselves to them. Giving them a breakdown of the services that we can provide, and over time, we would build the trust of certain individuals who would come up on the mobile health clinic.

And sometimes we would just invite them on, would you like to take a look around? Could we check your blood pressure for you? I see that you have a cut. Would you like us to wrap that with a fresh bandage? And once we took away the scariness of coming onto a clinic and getting to know our patients, word gets around and then they tell their friends, Hey, St. Joe's is here. This is a great clinic. The staff are friendly, they're welcoming, they'll take care of you. And then they bring their friends with them.

Host: Rosemary, can you share a particularly memorable or impactful story of a patient or community member who benefited from the Mobile Health Clinic?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Oh yeah. We have lots of different stories that we could share, but one in particular has to do with somebody who experienced a severe burn. This individual unfortunately, well, caught themselves on fire and refused to seek medical treatment. As much as they were encouraged to go to the emergency room and seek care, it was not an option for this person.

But we were able to see them on the mobile health clinic. And our lovely staff was able to help this patient from the very start and see them all the way through the healing process. Weekly dressing their wounds, providing them with the right type of ointment, medications needed so that they would heal properly and without infection.

And, you know, the patient still actually comes to see us all the time and loves to share his story about the treatment that he got when he visited the mobile health clinic and, he said, well, I didn't need to go to the hospital because I had St. Joe's here with a mobile health clinic. And he still comes to see us and, he has actually has minimal scarring as well, which is a really nice thing to see.

Host: Amazing. That's got to make your staff feel great. I mean, that's what it's all about, right?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Oh, absolutely. It's about helping people and meeting them where they are. And our goal also is to connect people with ongoing services. So we do try to refer people so that they can get the ongoing treatment that they do need, but we do realize that, you know, accessing brick and mortar is not always accessible, for some of the patients that we see. So we are a reliable source and we have you know, that established patient relationship with individuals, so they keep coming back.

Host: How can members of the community get involved or support the work of the Mobile Health Clinic?

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Well, I did mention that how the mobile health clinic provides non-urgent walk- in care, but we do so much more. Of course, we see people who are wet, they're cold, they're hungry, they're thirsty. So on the mobile health clinic, we also stock our shelves with water, Gatorade, granola bars, bandages, gloves, hats, socks.

These are all things that we just give to folks who are in great need. And we want to make sure that when they leave our services, they have some type of comfort. We also have hygiene kits that we give out to folks, you know, being able to have some shampoo, deodorant, a bar of soap. So we're always accepting donations of those kinds.

And also monetary donations to keep our clinic up and running. A greater majority of the care that we give is free care to folks. We do accept insurance information from individuals, but we also see many patients who have no insurance or are underinsured and no one is turned away from us.

Host: Well, thank you so much for sharing this important information, Rosemary. What an invaluable service you provide. It's amazing.

Rosemary Ford, MBA, OTC, NHICS-A/Licensed: Thank you so much for having me today.

Host: Of course. Again, that's Rosemary Ford. To learn more about the Mobile Health Clinic, visit stjosephhospital.com/mobile-health-clinic. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay, thanks for listening to Wellness First presented by St. Joseph Hospital.