Updates

Helping Houston Communities: Texas Children’s Hospital Mobile Clinic Program

Wellness

Imagine this: You are a 25 year old male who has just gained custody of your 12 year old brother. Your brother has just moved to Houston from Louisiana and doesn’t have health insurance in Texas. You try to enroll him in school and the secretary tells you that he must have the Tdap and MCV4 vaccines in order to attend. Therefore, you take him to a clinic to get his vaccines and are told that the shots will cost about $200! You can’t afford that so you keep looking for other places and in the mean time, you don’t go to work because you are at home taking care of your brother. You keep searching for a clinic that offers vaccines at a lower cost but aren’t having any luck. At this point, you can’t miss work anymore so you decide to drive your brother all the way to New Orleans and back to get his vaccines.  The day before your trip, you hear about the Texas Children’s Hospital mobile clinics from a coworker. You bring your brother to the Texas Children’s Hospital mobile clinic and within 2 hours, he receives his vaccines at no cost and is able to go to school!  

The above story illustrates just one of the many benefits our mobile clinics provides to the community. The Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program is composed of two clinics: The Superkids Mobile Clinic (SKMC) and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile (RMCM). The mission of the program is to provide underserved children in the Houston area with comprehensive health care and preventive education. During the school year, the Super Kids Mobile Clinic travels primarily to elementary schools and community centers in the Southwest Gulfton area (see calendar, here) and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile travels primarily to elementary schools and community centers in the Southeast Hobby area (see calendar, here). The clinic provides free vaccinations to those who qualify for the Texas Vaccines for Children program and also provides zero to low cost well child visits, sick visits and hearing/vision screenings for all underserved children in the Houston area. In addition, both mobile clinics have pharmacies that are stocked with common medications and have the equipment necessary for their providers to perform common laboratory tests. Lastly, providers and staff also educate all patients coming through the clinic about the different insurance options available to them. 

In the summer, the clinics travel throughout the Houston area and sometimes even further to provide vaccines to children before the school year starts! I love my job on the mobile clinic. The ability to make a difference every day is pretty incredible. I see patients like the one in the above story all the time and feel so great that we can do something relatively simple to help them. If you would like more information about our clinic, please visit our website. We are always looking for volunteers too. If you are interested in helping, please visit Texas Children’s volunteer services, here.