LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Los Angeles County on Friday launched a fleet of mobile medical clinics making daily stops at camps across the region to address urgent health and social needs of people affected by homelessness.
Each Housing for Health mobile medical unit is equipped with full-service exam rooms to provide basic supplies such as vaccines and medications; emergency care procedures such as wound care, ultrasound, and blood work; and women-centered care such as cervical cancer screening, sexually transmitted disease diagnosis, obstetrics, and prenatal care.
Other services include laboratory results, behavioral health care, psychiatry, enhanced care management, on-site medically assisted treatment and care transition.
The clinics are staffed by a team of doctors, mental health professionals, nurses, addiction counselors and social workers. Each mobile ambulance is also assigned a personal vehicle that helps move unaccommodated people to specialized care centers, emergency shelters, clinics, or other programs where medical follow-up or social services can be provided.
“As efforts continue to expand our shelters and create more affordable housing, we must first take care of people where they live — under bridges, in alleyways and city camps,” Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said in a statement .
“This is a necessary strategy to save lives and build trust in a very vulnerable population,” she said. “Mobile medical units are a major advance in our efforts to reverse mortality rates among our homeless population, reduce avoidable hospital visits and direct cost-effective medical care to where it’s most needed.”
The mobile clinic program was designed to fill gaps in health care identified during the county’s emergency response efforts to protect the homeless from COVID-19. While deployed for COVID-19 awareness and immunizations, clinicians and outreach workers collected data on camps across the county. Housing for Health executives have established mobile clinic routes based on the needs identified through these surveys.
“Our COVID response efforts, which have vaccinated more than 70% of our homeless population, have clearly shown us how successful we can be with direct outreach, focused and coordinated medical care, and compassion,” said Sarah Mahin, director of Housing for Health . “These mobile clinics will continue our ability to provide consistent, accessible trauma-informed care that is comprehensive, responsive and patient-centric.”
