Cincinnati Children’s Takes to the Road With New Mobile Care Center

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

In November, Cincinnati Children’s will launch its new Mobile Care Center to deliver pediatric subspecialty services to local and regional communities. These will be areas that are underserved or have transportation barriers that make it difficult for families to access care at the Cincinnati Children’s Burnet campus or satellite facilities.

Although there are thousands of mobile health clinics operating in the United States, this new 38-feet long, coach-style vehicle, is one of the few in the nation to focus on pediatric subspecialty care. Initially, the Mobile Care Center will provide pediatric heart care but will expand to other services next spring.

“A fundamental aspect of our mission is to identify and address unmet pediatric healthcare needs in the local and regional communities we serve and make those services easier for underserved families to access,” says Steve Davis, MD, chief operating officer at Cincinnati Children’s. “In the coming months and years, we plan to broaden the services our Mobile Care Center will provide and make these services available in additional locations, closer to the homes of our patients.”

The Mobile Care Center is built with a flexible design meant to meet the needs of a variety of specialty services. The unit will include:

• Two exam rooms and one area for triage or labs
• Portable diagnostic equipment, such as ultrasound and echocardiography
• Wireless connection to medical records
• Refrigerators and freezers for medicines, vaccines and medical specimens
• A wheelchair lift for handicap accessibility

The Mobile Care Center will feature the highest quality care delivered by the same providers patients might see at Cincinnati Children’s Burnet campus or satellites. The Center will begin operation in November in Seaman, Ohio at HealthSource of Ohio, with a pediatric heart clinic, staffed by the Heart Institute at Cincinnati Children’s.

Heart clinic appointments are by provider referral. Providers can fax pediatric heart clinic referrals to 513-803-1111.