Mobile health clinic planned

A mobile school health clinic will begin serving students at two Franklin County high schools next fall, thanks to a $375,000 grant from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation (ILCHF). Dr. Penny Tippy, professor of family and community medicine and director of the Family Medicine Residency Program, based in Carbondale, organized the project.

Lt. Gov. Patrick Quinn joined Dr. Penny Tippy for Tuesday’s announcement of a mobile health clinic serving Benton and West Frankfort high school students. Quinn called Tippy, organizer of the project and director of the Family Medicine Residency Program, “our North Star. We will follow her lead.”

The mobile clinic will serve students at West Frankfort and Benton high schools, which have a combined enrollment of approximately 1,200. It will provide primary care, minor injuries treatment, school/sports physicals, immunizations, and wellness and mental health counseling.

Services will be provided by a team of SIU medical school staff who will rotate - a physician’s assistant, nurse, social worker and resident physician. Family medicine physicians will provide supervision. Parental permission for treatment will be requested for each student at the beginning of each school year.

As students are seen at the mobile clinic, referrals for severe injuries, chronic illnesses, birth ontrol or prenatal care will be made to community physicians. Family physicians will be notified of services when a patient asks that information be shared. Services will be on a sliding scale and billed to insurance plans and the usual financial assistance programs.

The mobile clinic will be purchased in the next few months so that it can be delivered this summer. It is expected to be 36-feet long and equipped with two exam rooms, a small laboratory and wireless Internet connection. The exterior design will come from art classes at the two high schools.

Tippy says the mobile clinic program will help determine if medical and mental health care as well as wellness education can be delivered effectively in this way. "We appreciate the foresight of the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation in awarding this grant. If this pilot goes well, the model could be adapted in other places in the state and even more children would have ready access to comprehensive, on-going medical treatment."