nurse practitioner doctoral student at UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s College of Nursing who is providing care on the mobile health unit and conducting doctoral research on hearing screenings for seniors./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cUCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s mobile health clinic is an incredible and innovative tool that will allow us, as a group of providers, the ability to care for patients by serving them where they are,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d she says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cUltimately, this is going to improve the health of our communities./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Addressing a Community Need/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n The mobile clinic serves Florida residents who are uninsured or underinsured with income levels at or below 300% of the Federal Poverty Level. Nearly 15% of both Orange and Osceola County residents are not insured, regardless of income level. In addition, 27% of Floridians say they do not have a personal physician./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Since March, almost 500 patients have visited the clinic for blood pressure checks, hearing screenings and point-of-care testing for blood sugar levels and cholesterol. It has provided care at Four Roots Farm, Kinneret Council on Aging, Grace Medical Home, the Central Florida Fairgrounds and four Central Florida YMCA locations. UCF has also reached an agreement with Osceola County to provide care at community centers in the future./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Thanks to a grant from the Florida Department of Health, the clinic is working to improve care for the community/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s diabetic patients with limited access to care./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic. In Florida, at least 2.17 million adults have been diagnosed with diabetes and an estimated 550,000 more are unaware they have it. The state/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s diabetes rate is higher than the national average and it is getting worse /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2013 an additional 6 million adults in Florida have prediabetes./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cMany of our neighbors with diabetes have no access to healthcare. That leads to premature death, blindness, loss of limbs and kidney failure,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d Hernandez says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThrough the FDOH grant, we can help provide these patients with needed care. We screen patients for diabetes, can provide prescriptions at no cost, and offer education on diet changes that will help them manage their disease./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
As one recent patient at Kinneret Council on Aging explains, /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cUCF helped me know what kind of food and protein I can eat to help my blood sugar not get too high or too low. Thank you so much. You are helping./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
The clinic also started a diabetic foot program after one of the Kinneret patients said she and other diabetics lacked mobility and eyesight to regularly check their feet for ulcers or blisters. Diabetes increases a patient/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s risk for foot ulcers that can lead to amputation. Thanks to the foot program, UCF College of Nursing faculty and students are providing hands-on education and preventive screenings to patients, who also received their own telescoping mirrors to do regular foot checks at home./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/nWith two private exam rooms, diagnostic equipment, and point-of-care testing capabilities, the clinic is aiming to reduce preventable conditions and improve long-term health for the Central Florida region./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/nProviding Needed Audiology Care/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n One of the clinic/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s major health services is hearing health and the prevention of hearing loss./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThis is not just a /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2018nice to have/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019 screening,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d says Bari Hoffman /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201996 /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201998MA, associate dean for clinical affairs at UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s College of Health Professions and Sciences and a certified speech pathologist who has helped lead the mobile clinic effort. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cHearing loss is linked to diabetes, cardiovascular and cardiometabolic conditions, balance, cognition and overall health. When we catch hearing loss early, we can intervene before it affects someone/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s safety, memory, their social connections, or their long-term health trajectory./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/nThanks to a gift from the Edyth Bush Charitable Foundation, UCF purchased diagnostic hearing equipment to provide clinical-grade hearing assessments in the community. And though a collaboration with Central Florida Hearing Aid Recycling Programs, the mobile clinic can help connect patients with reprogrammed, refurbished hearing aids at no cost./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThis is such a meaningful addition,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d Hoffman says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cIdentifying hearing loss is important, but ensuring people have access to hearing aids is what truly changes lives./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
The mobile unit is also supported by the Community Fund of our teaching hospital /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2013 UCF Lake Nona Hospital and our partners HCA Florida Healthcare and The Jules B. Chapman MD and Annie Lou Chapman Private Foundation./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Stephanie Garris is CEO of Orlando/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s Grace Medical Home, which provides high-quality, continuous care to some of Orange County/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s more than 160,000 uninsured residents. Grace patients have received audiology care from the UCF mobile clinic./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThis mobile clinic is an incredible resource for our patients, offering essential services they otherwise wouldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019t have access to./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2014Stephanie Garris, CEO of Orlando/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s Grace Medical Home/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThis mobile clinic is an incredible resource for our patients, offering essential services they otherwise wouldn/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019t have access to,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d Garris says. /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201cThrough our partnership with UCF, we are expanding access to care/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2014especially for the working poor, whose jobs often don/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019t include healthcare benefits./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u201d/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Expanding Efforts/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n Mobile clinic leaders are eager to expand services and work with additional community organizations./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Plans also include expanding the mobile clinic into an innovation hub to pilot and evaluate emerging aging-in-place and digital health technologies and integrate new diagnostic and disease prevention tools./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
UCF research faculty also want to use the vehicle/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s services to study better ways to advance health accessibility and chronic disease management. Educators from the AHSC/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/u2019s three colleges also plan to grow interdisciplinary student training across areas including audiology, nursing, medicine, physical therapy and speech language pathology./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
Community organizations wishing to partner with the mobile health clinic can contact anna.cisneros@ucf.edu./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The clinic also serves as real-world classroom for medical, nursing, speech-language pathology and physical therapy students./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":150128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"lazy_load_responsive_images_disabled":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":"","_wp_rev_ctl_limit":""},"categories":[15992,6,12,17],"tags":[17204,16873,979,4869,18219,1238,22543,2297],"tu_author":[],"class_list":["post-150106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","category-community","category-health","category-medicine","tag-academic-health-sciences-center","tag-college-of-health-professions-and-sciences","tag-college-of-medicine","tag-college-of-nursing","tag-community-impact","tag-deborah-german","tag-healthcare","tag-innovation"],"yoast_head":"/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n
New UCF Mobile Health Clinic Increases Access to Care/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/t /news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/150106/n