Text Box: MOBILE HEALTH CARE: BRINGING MEDICAL CARE HOME 
Zanga JR
Loyola Stritch School of Medicine/Ronald McDonald Children’s Hospital, Maywood, United States 

Objective:  To overcome transportation as a barrier to care by bringing a “doctor’s office on wheels” to the patients. 
Methods:  A random sample survey was done of families presenting for care in the outpatient office or (by phone) canceling or missing an appointment.  Demographic information collected included family size, insurance status, and perceived barriers to care.  Transportation (location of care) ranked highest, followed by cost of care, as a barrier.  
To address these issues in a cost, effective way, a “doctor’s office on wheels” was developed to bring care on a continuing, but rotating basis to the families. Key to this was involvement of “community partners” to organize the sites, and obtaining the financial support of a local foundation and the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC). 
Results: The Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) began operation in October 1998, in communities of lower socio-economic status. The MMU professional staff have now provided services to over 11,600 children, given 5,300 immunizations, completed 4,500 physicals, provided 10,200 screenings (blood pressure, weight, height, vision, hearing, hemoglobin, lead), done 425 asthma evaluations, and started a prenatal program for pregnant teenagers at a cost of $33 per child. The program has served as a model for the international development of mobile medical care under the auspices of the RMHC. 
Conclusion:  Mobile health care is an effective way to overcome real or perceived barriers to care in an indigent, widely separated population.  Both basic and intermediate levels of care can be provided.  The RMHC are supporting an international program expansion. This year, 8 new MMU’s will be deployed, 7 in the United States and 1 in Argentina, as further testimony to the success of our initial unit. 

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