Mobile Clinic Keeping Oklahomans Healthy

It's a mission of mercy to bring health care to Green Country. Thousands don't have insurance, and even more have trouble just getting to the doctor. The News On 6â€™s Joshua Brakhage reports

Sunday, August 26th 2007, 8:25 pm

By: News On 6

It's a mission of mercy to bring health care to Green Country. Thousands don't have insurance, and even more have trouble just getting to the doctor. The News On 6â€™s Joshua Brakhage reports a dose of mobile medicine is bringing doctors to patients' doorsteps, and theyâ€™ve got a new tool to help bring low-cost care to the uninsured and underserved.

It's an upgrade of enormous proportion. Good Samaritan Health Service has seen 20,000 patients in its mobile medical unit. Now, theyâ€™ve got a new rig that is 60-feet of state-of-the-art space, and doctors were in on the design.

"What we knew we wanted was three exam and treatment rooms. The other one has two," said Dr. John Crouch, Good Samaritan physician

Not only does the new unit have an extra exam room, it also has a much larger, fully-stocked pharmacy so patients get the care that they need on site, and the prescriptions they need to continue their care at home.

"It's not just saying we're gonna do free clinics for the poor, itâ€™s really saying, how do we help the underserved in ways that will be meaningful to help change their lives, and improve their lives, and empower them?" Dr. Crouch said.

Joyce Williams is a Good Samaritan success story. She says the best medicine for her was the relationships she found here.

"For one, I'd probably still be at home suffering with depression and not knowing that I had it. And for two, that love and support that the van showed me, that the peoples in the van showed me, the leaders, it really enabled me to get out and start living my life," she said.

The former patient now volunteers.

"I'm glad to be a part of that. I'm very blessed to be a part of that," former patient Joyce Williams said.

Everything is still brand new, most of the drawers in the new unit are still empty, but doctors are trying to make sure exam rooms don't stay that way for long.

"You're trying to keep 'em out of the hospital. You're trying to keep 'em from having to access the higher levels of care," said Crouch.

The new Good Samaritan unitâ€™s official ribbon cutting is Tuesday. They'll start seeing patients Wednesday.

Doctors say patients come in with anything from pneumonia to complications with diabetes. They do women's exams, kids' immunizations and are planning to start prenatal care.

The clinic makes stops all over the area, for more on the mobile clinic visit their website, www.goodsamaritanhealth.org.

Watch the video: Health Care Goes Mobile