County Approves Mobile Medical Clinic in Underserved Westside

Residents on the Westside of the City of San Bernardino will have greater access to health care services after the Board of Supervisors approved a new agreement during the Feb. 11 meeting. The agreement will allow Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) to use the Ruben Campos Community Center as a Mobile Medical Clinic site to provide primary care services to County residents. “This is important because it helps us to provide not only primary care, but also preventative and health education services to the underserved in our community. We chose the Ruben Campos Community Center as a site because of the need expressed by the community, and the Center’s willingness to collaborate with us,” said Laura Ellers, ARMC Respiratory Care Services Director and manager of the Mobile Medical Clinic. ARMC’s Mobile Medical Clinic is a 40-foot unit that features two exam rooms and a patient education area that can accommodate basic health screenings for conditions like asthma, high blood pressure and primary care services to remote areas of the county. “The County and its partners strive towards providing the same opportunities of health to all of our 24 cities and towns. Wherever there is this type of medical need, we are committed to filling it,” said Supervisor Josie Gonzales, whose representative district includes both ARMC and the Ruben Campos Community Center. In establishing the new clinic site, a health study was conducted by the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice (CCAEJ) with Loma Linda University that looked at the health of residents on the Westside of the City of San Bernardino. “In the study we found that 60 percent of the neighborhood residents had an annual income of less than $10,000; they had no health insurance; could not afford medical treatment and did not go to the emergency room. We also found in a screening of students at a local elementary school that asthma rates were at 47 percent,” said Penny Newman, Executive Director of CCAEJ. For more information on the ARMC Mobile Medical Clinic and the health services they provide, please call (909)520-1207.