LAKE COUNTY – Plans for a mobile health unit are moving forward at Sutter Lakeside Hospital, says Lakeside Wellness Foundation Director Tami Silva, who took over as director in May. Silva was one of the original founders of the idea for mobile health in Lake County.
The idea is to provide mobile health care to seniors and other residents in remote areas around the lake with no access to health care. Once the mobile unit is purchased, it will travel to senior centers and other areas providing free-of-charge health risk assessment, flu shots, lab work, physicals and wellness coaching. The long-range goal of the mobile clinic includes reaching out to the uninsured and pockets of the community where residents lack transportation.
According to the Lake County Department of Health Services, data from a community needs assessment study conducted in 2002 found that 10 percent of the community is struggling with access to health care.
Silva said the survey provided information to Sutter that 45 percent of those surveyed think the available transportation in the county is inadequate.
Coupled with geographic isolation, she said, health care delivery is hampered by poverty, with 20 percent of the population and 31 percent of the county”s children living below the poverty line, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Unemployment rose overall by more than 10 percent from 1997-2001, significantly higher than the statewide and national rates.
For those with jobs, wage rates are low?about 35 percent lower than the state as a whole. Many of the wages in the county do not pay enough to cover a family”s basic needs, Silva said. “In fact, Lake County falls in the top quarter of the most impoverished counties in our state. Where poverty and isolation are found, health care suffers,” Silva wrote in a recent grant request to acquire $50,000 for the mobile health unit.
More than three-quarters of the Lake County survey respondents are concerned about access to health care, she said. Concerns among residents include not having a doctor available to them, the coast of care and the lack of transportation to that care.
The survey, conducted by Applied Survey Research of Watsonville, also reported that in addition to concerns about transportation and poverty, Lake County has a high at-risk population, with twice the statewide percentage of seniors age 65 and over. Nearly 16 percent of Lake County survey respondents have no health insurance coverage, and of those that do, 14 percent have no prescription drug coverage, as compared to less than 9 percent statewide. Children are particularly at-risk, about 30 percent of respondents have no dependent care coverage.
Sutter Hospital is using the information provided in the study in their grant applications, citing that with care providers spread thin, it is difficult without mobile care to address the problems in the county. Physician distribution in Lake County is about half as dense as the state average.
Lake County death rates are above state average for all cancers, lung cancer, stroke and unintentional injury. In this latter category, the disparity is stark in comparison to the state death average: the adjusted death rate (deaths per 100,000 persons) is 60.7 for accidental death compared to 27.4 statewide.
Child abuse is more than double the state”s average, common forms being general neglect and physical abuse. Domestic violence calls increased 49 percent from 2000-2001 alone. First entries to foster care were almost three times higher in Lake County as they were statewide during that same year.
Another goal of the mobile health unit is to pair with other community agencies to provide free care. But a mobile health unit, its supplies and upkeep carry a hefty price tag, and Sutter is asking for help in fundraising. “The mobile unit is going to fill needs that up to this point have been unmet, especially to those who have limited access to health care under the current system,” said Mark Buehnerkemper, acting chairman of the Sutter Wellness Foundation.
So far, about $50,000 has been raised of the needed $250,000 for a mobile unit, said Buehnerkemper. “We”re in the midst right now of a fundraising effort trying to get more support from grants, local donors and philanthropists.”
Sutter is sending out applications to numerous untapped health care and small community-geared grants. “We”re asking this of several grant opportunities. There are lots of grants available and we”re trying to search them out,” said Buehnerkemper.
He said the carnival-themed party that happens each holiday season to benefit programs at Sutter will help fund the mobile health unit, as it did for the first time last winter, after the idea for mobile health was born. He confirmed the event will happen this year, and the details are being worked out. “It”s going to be different than anything the county has ever seen. It”s not going to be carnival-themed, or M*A*S*H (last year”s theme)?I don”t want to spoil it yet.”
Contact Elizabeth Wilson at ewilson@record-bee.com
