Dr. Christina Robinson, pediatrician and medical director of the new UNT Pediatric Mobile Clinic, knows what poverty and lack of medical care look like. She grew up in Fort Worth's Stop Six. Although her parents didn't have college degrees, they encouraged her to stay focused in school so she would have a different life from the one she saw outside her window every day. She told her parents at a young age she wanted to be a doctor.
It's surreal for her that she gets to go back to her old neighborhood helping underserved children. The 40-foot pediatrician's office on wheels started visiting Como, Stop Six, North Side and Morningside weekly on May 12. It now brings antibiotics, vaccines, a board-certified pediatrician, a registered nurse, a social worker, educational materials and so much more to the children and their families at no cost.
It has two exam rooms, space for social services, registration, a pharmacy and a lab. All of the staff members are bilingual.
This plan coalesced as registered nurse and program director, Laura Standish, made plans to move back to Fort Worth from Los Angeles, where she worked on a mobile clinic for years. When professor and chairman of pediatrics, Dr. Paul Bowman, bumped into Standish's stepfather, UNTHSC's Dr. Monte Troutman, he told Bowman what his stepdaughter had been up to and that she was moving back. Bowman's ears perked up.
Standish said Bowman was already in the process of addressing the issue of "no-shows" at UNTHSC's Patient Care Center, where he and Robinson work. And since just three months earlier Robinson attended a seminar in Dallas about mobile healthcare and had brought it to his attention, it was already on Bowman's radar as a solution.
Children don't show up to doctor appointments either because their parents don't have insurance, a car or money for bus passes, or they can't make the co-pay. Robinson said some wait until their child's condition reaches the maximum point of severity and then head to the local hospital, which leads to flooded emergency rooms.
And if a child comes in with bruises, the on-site social worker will bring them to her desk. The front passenger seat morphs into a soundproof room when a wall unfolds so the child has privacy.
Fort Worth was the largest city without a pediatric mobile clinic until this one came along. While still new and unfamiliar, Standish and Robinson met with pastors at local churches and school principals to develop relationships and trust in the neighborhoods they serve.
