After more than two years of serving the Olympia-area community with the Providence Swedish Mobile Health Clinic, their donated, refurbished medical RV has a new look. You’ll continue to see them around, serving the Olympia-area community – they just look a little different. The dedicated Street Medicine Program caregivers now travel in a Mobile Health Clinic fully wrapped in the Providence Swedish brand.
So far in 2024, the Street Medicine team has served more than 500 individuals, going out into the community a couple times a week. Compare that to when the program began in June 2022, the team served 67 individuals that year with medical residents from Providence St. Peter Family Medicine going out every other Thursday afternoon.
The goal of the program is to meet the needs of the Olympia-area’s marginalized and underserved individuals by going to where the patients are. Today, a total of six caregivers make up the Mobile Health Clinic team, including nurses, mental health professionals and others. The most common treatments are behavioral health support, wound care along with skin infections, foot care, referrals to primary care, and post hospitalization follow-up and support. In addition to providing direct, comprehensive care, the team also helps make connections to other social service agencies.
Kristyn Criss, ARNP, program manager, said this approach is reaching the community’s most vulnerable residents. “We meet our patients where they are and walk with them toward achieving health, one step at a time,” Criss said. “Earlier access to treatment and interventions, or even preventative services, reduces avoidable emergency department visits and benefits the entire community.”
“The dignity expressed through this ministry, to our unhoused community members, is truly the Providence Mission in action,” said Tracy Brown, Chief Mission Officer, Providence Swedish South Puget Sound. “I cannot be prouder of the way our mobile health team serves this vulnerable population in addressing their healthcare needs.”
The Providence Swedish Street Medicine Program is supported by community partners Medical Teams International, Thurston County Treatment Sales Tax, Thurston Mason Behavioral Health ASO | Lacey, WA (tmbhaso.org)) and funded by the Providence Southwest Washington Foundation.