SEMO hopes to revive mobile health unit

Southeast Missouri State University hopes a partnership with a federally funded Bootheel network of health centers will help get a mobile health unit back on the road.

The university shut down its Southeast Health on Wheels Mobile, or SHOW Mobile, last week. Currently parked at the university's center at Malden, Mo., the 38-foot mobile health center is housed in a converted Airstream RV.

The school's inability to attract the medical staff needed to provide health care to low-income patients in the Bootheel prompted the university to look at partnering with the SEMO Health Network, school president Dr. Ken Dobbins said Tuesday.

Officials with Southeast and the health network plan to meet later this week to discuss the expected partnership.

Cheryl White, chief operating officer of the New Madrid-based group, estimated the mobile unit could be traveling to small Bootheel towns like Wyatt and Risco by March.

White said her organization and the university first must enter into a written agreement and work out staffing arrangements.

SEMO Health Network plans to use some of its existing medical personnel to staff the mobile center at first. With sufficient demand for the services, the network eventually may have to expand its staff.

SEMO Health Network operates medical clinics in New Madrid, Sikeston, Bernie, Portageville and Kennett, Mo. Three clinics also offer dental services. In all, the health network employs 120 doctors, dentists, nurses and nurse practitioners, White said.

The network serves about 16,000 low-income children and adults in Dunklin, New Madrid, Mississippi, Pemiscot, Stoddard and Scott counties. Many of the patients are on Medicaid or Medicare. About 35 percent don't have any insurance, White said. The network charges sliding fees based on patients' incomes.

University officials unveiled the mobile health unit in July. A $650,000 federal grant paid for the vehicle and its equipment, but the university had to pay to staff and operate it, Dobbins said.

Southeast then discovered it didn't have the computerized billing system needed to handle Medicaid and Medicare payments. The university would have had to buy such a system to continue offering medical services, he said.

The biggest problem, however, proved to be staffing.

Southeast initially staffed the unit with a driver, a nurse and a nurse practitioner. But the university couldn't attract a dentist for the SHOW Mobile.

The university operated the mobile unit from July 25 to Oct. 31 with a nurse practitioner. During that time the unit served 170 people in a four-county area of the Bootheel, said Bobbi Morris, director of the mobile unit and a member of the nursing faculty at Southeast.

At the end of October, the nurse practitioner quit, and school officials were unsuccessful in hiring a replacement. Morris said that problem reflects the shortage of primary care providers.

From Nov. 1 through Jan. 22, the mobile unit operated with a nurse. The nurse evaluated patients but ultimately had to refer them to other medical providers for treatment, Morris said. During that time, the mobile unit served about 75 people.

School officials concluded that the program would better be served by partnering with the health network.

Art Wallhausen, associate to the president, said the region needs a mobile health center. "I think it is a matter of growing pains," he said. "It is a good concept, and it needs to be refined."

Southeast officials said the university could continue to provide health education through the mobile unit. Students majoring in nursing and other health-related fields could serve internships with the mobile center, Dobbins said.

White said the mobile unit would allow her health network medical staff to reach low-income patients who live in rural areas and don't have transportation to the network's existing centers.

"This will meet a huge need," she said. "This will be like putting the SEMO Health Network on wheels."

mbliss@semissourian.com

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