Bloomington commits $150K to Carle’s new mobile health clinic | Politics

The opportunity to create a mobile health unit came about through conversations he and others have had with Carle Health about bringing behavioral health services to rural school districts, and they proposed the idea of creating a county specific unit, Taylor said. 

“Imagine being able to go to Danvers or Colfax or Bellflower and be able to bring Carle clinicians, their nurse practitioners, doctors and others out there,” Taylor said, describing the unit as a way to address “deserts for services like medical care.”

Tinervin said his foundation, the Laborers and United Way each have pledged $100,000 toward beginning construction of the mobile health unit. They also are recruiting people in the community to help donate the remaining funds needed. 

“We think this is the beginning of this partnership (and) we’re going to be announcing some pretty exciting things and other ways we’re going to bring health care to the west side,” Tinervin said.

Restrictions on the funding say the unit will operate only in McLean County and the partnership of donors will work with Carle Health Community’s Health Initiative’s team to determine where and when the unit operates. 

The clinic will include primary family care and integrated services, wellness care and checkups, nonurgent walk-in care, school physicals and vaccinations, chronic condition screenings and education, and basic lab testing. 

It also will be wheelchair accessible and include two exam rooms, which is similar to the existing mobile health unit that is shared by Champaign, Vermillion and McLean counties but has limited availability locally due to its high usage in other counties. 

Ward 4 Alderwoman Julie Emig said she enjoyed touring the unit along with other councilmembers and was impressed by the amount of clinicians and equipment available on hand, but she asked how many residents the unit serves, just for the sake of understanding the scope of it. 

Tinervin said the current mobile health clinic provides care to around 2,000 people each year and sees almost 20 to 30 patients each day. Students also need school checkups and vaccinations across Bloomington District 87 and McLean County Unit 5 schools.