NAMPA, Idaho (CBS2) — St. Luke's Children's mobile care clinic has officially hit the road in Canyon County.
The retrofitted R.V. is set up to bring primary care services to students at elementary, middle, and high schools in Nampa.
The mobile clinic started making the rounds in November and currently services six schools.
"A lot of children the main barrier is the transportation and also time so families are busy, parents are at work so this is a unique opportunity to meet children where they are at," Dr. Noreen Womack, a pediatrician at St. Luke's Children's said.
Dr. Womack says parents and students have responded well to the mobile care unit.
"They like the fact that we are able to pretty much provide any of the services that we provide at a regular clinic so that's immunizations, sports physicals, care for concussions," Dr. Womack said.
The mobile clinic also has a partnership with St. Luke's CARES which provides care for victims of sexual abuse.
"Forensic nurses and the child abuse pediatricians in Boise can again go out to where the families are who have those barriers of transportation and do those very specific, careful, forensic interviews in that community where the family is," Dr. Womack said.
Brenden Warwick, the practice program manager who led the project, gave me a tour of the mobile clinic. The clinic is set up to provide standard immunizations, sports physicals, acute care, and forensic interviews.
"When we are not in schools it is used by our CARES team who will go out to the rural areas and do forensic interviews. So this room is set up to record those interviews for kids who have been potentially abused," Warwick said.
Paula Kellerer, the superintendent for Nampa schools says this mobile clinic will give kids access to regular care with a physician.
"We have students who have never seen, outside of being born somewhere, and sometimes not even then, who have never seen a regular physician for those regular check-ups to make sure they have those vaccinations, those types of things. So we have students who don't have access to that who will now be able to," Kellerer said.
In order to be treated at the clinic, kids will first need parents' verbal and written consent.
For more information on mobile care clinics, contact St. Luke's Health System or the Nampa School District.
RELATED:St. Luke's mobile care clinic visits Nampa elementary schools
ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwv9Nmo66jlah6pLTIpZurnZ6oeq67waKjnmWTlr%2BmecKloKehk2K8p7LEq6pmqKKeuqK%2B2GaamqqVYsCmvtWimp6rXZbBbrrApqeaZaOYtbC7y6w%3D