When the Women and Infants Mobile Health Clinic opened to see women after the pandemic, staff saw conditions, illnesses, and pregnancies further along than most doctors prefer, Operations Director Dr. Suzanne Phelan said.
“There’s a pressing need for health care and general women’s wellness because many of the health care facilities have been impacted [by COVID-19].” Phelan said. “Because of COVID overall, you see many more people have been missing their exams. We want to prevent disease—we want to treat it, but we really want to prevent it.”
After a six-month shutdown with some telehealth opportunities, the mobile clinic opened to serve new and returning clients every Tuesday afternoon, alternating between Guadalupe and Santa Maria.
The Cal Poly-operated service was designed in 2017 after looking at local data on the prevalence of women attending medical care. Phelan and her research team found that about 30 percent of women were not receiving women’s wellness checks due to logistical, language, financial, and cultural barriers in North Santa Barbara County communities, she said.
“The lack of access to care we saw was unacceptable in this day and age. There was a high prevalence of diseases, and we felt this could be addressed,” Phelan said.
To combat this, the mobile clinic created care time later in the afternoon, provided free wellness services, and partnered with Herencia Indígena for Spanish and Mixteco interpretation services.
“We’re designed to provide culturally competent care,” Phelan said.
Common illnesses and medical illnesses the clinic sees are pre-diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, arthritis, chronic back pain, and asthma, Mobile Health Unit Coordinator Cristina Macedo said.
“We are definitely getting busier and have a lot more patients. I feel like one concern is to be able to follow up with the patients,” Macedo said.
The clinic has seen 199 patients total—with 118 new patients—as of Oct. 5. Women and Infants Mobile Health normally sees five to six patients per day, but lately the team has been seeing seven to 10 patients per day, she added.
Macedo creates clinic announcements on Facebook and receives calls for appointment scheduling. She helps patients fill out the paperwork so charts and intakes are complete before they come into the clinic.
“We meet with doctors once a week, and if the patient needs a prescription, we will see them the following week,” she said.
As operations director, Macedo calls patients after exams to explain results to the women, but more patients means an increased need for bilingual assistants. There are translators on the team for three-way call options if Macedo is not available, but hiring is limited because employees need to be fluent in Spanish.
“We need more grants to hire somebody part-time to help me. The follow-up with the patients takes time; if I want to talk for 15 minutes, I sometimes end up talking for a half hour,” Macedo said.
Addressing cultural barriers—specifically in the Mixteco-speaking communities—takes time, too, she added.
“We really have to explain everything. These are really shy ladies, and it takes us longer when we have a Mixtec-speaking lady. I block an hour for these patients because it takes us longer. Culturally, they don’t know what a mammogram is or what we’re doing, so we have to explain a lot of things,” she said.
Services only available once a week also cause issues, Macedo said. She’d like to see the clinic be able to expand its services to weekends, but it’s hard with limited staffing.
Funding shortages also limit weekend opportunities, Operations Director Phelan said, adding that she’s writing grants and they’re trying to get support from the community as well.
“We’re only open a half day a week when there’s a clear need for more care in Santa Maria and Guadalupe,” she continued. “My concern is trying to get the support needed. Their needs have been identified by the community, and we want to work together to try and address these issues.”
The next clinic visit will be Nov. 9 at the Santa Maria Vets Hall (Salón de Veteranos)—313 W. Tunnell St.—from 1 to 5 p.m. For more information on appointments and locations, call Macedo at (805) 756 5089, or visit healthresearch.calpoly.edu/mobile-health-menu or find the Women’s and Infants Mobile Clinic on Facebook for more information.
Highlight
• The Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department and the People for Leisure and Youth Inc. (PLAY Inc.) are sponsoring a Howl-o-ween Pet Parade on Oct. 31 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Rotary Centennial Park—2625 South College Drive—in Santa Maria. The parade starts at 1:30 p.m., and winners will be announced at 2:30 p.m. Prizes will be presented for best costumes in several categories. Visit santamariaatplay.org to preregister. Registration costs $10 and all proceeds benefit PLAY Inc.
Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor wrote this week’s Spotlight. You can reach her at toconnor@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 4, 2021.
