ORLANDO, Fla. — Medical students and staff at the University of Central Florida are taking their care out on the road after unveiling a mobile health clinic that will provide free medical care to low-income or uninsured patients.
What You Need To Know
UCF leaders unveiled a mobile health clinic for low-income or uninsured patients in central Florida
The truck will serve clients in Orange and Osceola counties
UCF medical students will help out on board, giving them hands-on experience with real patients
University staff say this will help with education and healthcare accessibility
The 38-foot clinic includes two exam rooms, equipment, and tools for professional staff and UCF students. It was funded through donors, including a $2 million grant from the Florida Department of Health.
Services include screenings for blood pressure, diabetes, and cholesterol. Mimi Alliance, a family nurse practitioner doctoral student at UCF, will spend her time in the clinic researching and providing hearing screenings for seniors.
“Older adults sometimes — often times — are forgotten about and their hearing loss isolates them, so I’m excited to see what this project is going to bring with screenings and how we’re going to help referral pathways, get patients if they have a hearing problem and need hearing aids, get those for them,” said Alliance.
The clinic provides free healthcare to patients in Orange and Osceola counties, where UCF staff say 15 percent of residents are uninsured. Leaders tell Spectrum News the clinic will help them find new ways to improve and move forward.
“There’s also opportunities for research, so we can collectively look at different measurements and different ways of evaluating the effectiveness of the services we’re providing, and different ways to innovate and provide innovative services,” said UCF College of Nursing Dean and Professor Sharon Tucker.
The truck doubles as a mobile classroom for students ready for hands-on experience, such as Brianna Coltellino, who says she provides assistive technology demonstrations to patients.
“Not a lot of people know about assistive technology and that there are free services right at their doorstep, so to bring those out to them and get that awareness out to individuals is so important and something we need to be doing more of,” she said.
The bus will be parked at apartment and living facilities throughout the counties. For more information on scheduling an appointment or seeing the upcoming schedule, click here.