Montage Health brings medical care directly to homeless and uninsured.

Decades ago doctors made house calls, bringing medical care to patients who couldn't make it to the clinic.

Now Montage Health, the nonprofit parent company of the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula in Monterey, is bringing free medical care to those with no homes, as well as those with poor access to health care, in Monterey County.

On Sept. 28 Montage officially opened its first mobile health clinic, a big light blue 40-foot bus once used for community blood drives, with the license plate "SAVLIFE."

For now the bus will be parked in the Walgreens parking lot at the corner of Canyon Del Rey and Fremont boulevards in Seaside from 3-7pm, every Thursday, except Thanksgiving. More locations will be added in the future.

Just across the street from Laguna Grande Regional Park, it's the perfect location to service the homeless population that congregates there. It's also less than a mile from Roberts Lake just off of Highway 1 at Canyon Del Rey Boulevard, another site for homeless encampments. 

Montage officials say they conferred with Seaside Police on choosing just the right spot, and Walgreens management was very supportive of parking the mobile clinic in the store's lot.

The goal, says Terril Lowe, RN, CHOMP's chief nursing officer, is to intervene early before small health concerns become major and expensive medical emergencies that land people in the hospital's emergency room.

"That's really the model here, to help people early before there are bigger problems," she says.

Montage officials report that currently more than 100 homeless people are being seen each month in CHOMP's emergency department. The clinic could possibly stem that tide.

But the clinic is not just for the homeless, says, Dr. Casey Grover, the clinic's medical director. Anyone lacking health insurance benefits or with issues in accessing health care will be seen.

Medical care offered on the bus includes wound care, coughs, colds, vaccines and checks for things like blood pressure and diabetes—basic primary and urgent care, along with preventative medicine. No painkillers or sedatives are carried on the bus.

The idea for the mobile clinic was conceived after CHOMP officials decided to retire the bus as a bloodmobile, Lowe says. Improvements in surgical procedures and other medical advancements decreased the hospital's need to collect blood. Donating blood is still important, but Montage decided to hand over the task to another provider.

Once plans were underway for the clinic, the Monterey Peninsula Foundation donated $500,000. Another $200,000 was donated by Montage Health's Auxiliary, along with $64,000 from Montage employees. Sara and James Jungroth gave a "substantial gift," according to a press release.

Some of the monies were used to renovate the bus. It comes with two small, but private exam rooms, one at each end. A waiting room in the middle can be used as an exam room, if needed.

Folding tables outside are staffed by Auxiliary volunteers assisting with intake. Two large flat screens on the side of the bus display health videos to waiting patients.

Every clinic will operate with a nurse practitioner and emergency room technicians, along with a social worker, and will be able to assist patients in English and Spanish.

Social workers will play an important role in linking patients to additional services in the community, especially when it comes to finding funds and transportation for follow-up care with specialists.

Getting patients to follow-up on treatment is a challenge, especially among the homeless, says Lara Shipley, a family nurse practitioner at the clinic.

Shipley says she hopes with the encouragement of the mobile clinic healthcare providers and the work of social workers, more patients will get connected to the care they need.

"The idea is to work ourselves out of a job," she says.