La Red Health Center is expanding its mobile health unit into underserved communities in southern Delaware.
La Red’s Maternal Outreach and Mobile Services, or MOMS program, is a partnership between private healthcare providers, state agencies, and non-profits like La Red.
La Red Director of Women’s Health Lisa Butterworth say their mobile health unit -which offers primary care, vaccination, and discount pharmacy services - will now bring family planning services to areas that otherwise wouldn’t get them.
“These areas have a lot of barriers to getting care. So they live in more rural areas, it takes them a lot more effort to get into the clinic- so we’re taking our mobile health unit closer to them so that we’re coming to them instead of them having to come to us.” she told DPM.
The mobile health unit functions as doctor’s offices on wheels, bringing services to a patient’s area. Butterworth says the mobile health team can meet patient needs where they are, even at their place of work.
“We’ve been in talks with some of the chicken plants. Some of our local chicken plants have a health center where they can receive primary care but they don’t have any GYN access. So, we’re looking at bringing the mobile health unit and coordinating with some of the chicken plants to do gynecological care days” she said.
Butterworth says that La Red already serves over 800 prenatal patients a year, and these visits will likely increase that number even more.
She says the MOMS program was made possible through grant funding from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration. That funding will be available for four years and began last fall.
The MOMS team already visited one location, the Rehoboth Community Resource Center, and will visit two other locations this month: Clarks Corner in Harrington on May 13th at 11 am to 4:30 pm and Laverty Lane in Bridgeville on May 27 at 11 am to 4:30 pm.
Visits from the mobile health unit can be requested on the La Red Mobile Health Unit webpage.
