Sometime after the first of next year, commuters at St. Louis County MetroLink stations will have the opportunity to get basic health screenings, thanks to part of a $7.3 million grant from U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Transit Administration for innovative ways to use transit connect people to healthcare. It is FTA’s Rides to Wellness Mobility Grants initiative, which funded 19 projects in 16 states.
Bi-State Development’s nonprofit Research Institute, and the St. Louis County Department of Public Health partnered to bring convenient health screenings to mass transit-dependent community. The County health department already has a mobile medical unit that will be used to screen patients.
“The grant, for the most part, is to put the mobile medical clinic out at the stations for four days a week, six hours a day,” said John Wagner, director of Bi-State Development Research Institute.
They project to serve 48 people per day – about 15,000 patients during an 18-month demonstration period.
“If someone doesn’t have health insurance, we would be able to get them hooked up with either Medicaid or the other programs around here to actually get them hooked up with a primary care physician,” Wagner added.
“Dr. Faisal Khan, director of St. Louis County Department of Public Health, said, “The lack of transportation has been identified as a major barrier throughout the country for people not being able to access [health care]– there are others, affordability and all of that, but lack of access to transportation is one such barrier.”
Khan said the County health department received $885,000 and Bi-State received $55,000 to provide administrative support.
“What we want to be able to do is obviously track how many people we serve, how many people we are able to refer back to follow-up into an in-depth, more meaningful way, said Dr. Khan added.
Two nurses will see patients on the mobile health unit. General health screenings will include blood pressure, height, weight, body mass index (BMI) assessment and perhaps basic blood tests, like cholesterol screening.
“We might consider having social workers or counselors onboard as well, so that would depend on what sort of uptake we’re seeing,” Khan said. “We certainly don’t want staff just sitting there being underutilized.”
There will not be a prescription pharmacy on the mobile unit, Dr. Khan said. Any medication it may have would be over-the-counter.
The County and Bi-State began working on the idea late year after receiving a feasibility study grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health. Although that report is being finalized – the FTA grant availability earlier this year was a separate but complementary opportunity that was too good to pass up.
Wagner said probable locations will located in St. Louis County.
“Probably Wellston, St. Charles Rock Road … North Hanley would certainly be a wonderful location, and then maybe even the North County Transit Center up in Ferguson would be a good place to put it as well,” Wagner said.
Although all of the specifics are still being worked out, both Khan and Wagner stress it is an 18-month demonstration project. Whether the mobile health service at MetroLink stops is extended past the funded period all depends on utilization and resources.
“For the transit-dependent community, this will be a great way to maybe try to improve their health if it needs to be improved,” Wagner said, “and we’re trying to find ways to make the stations more a part of the community.”
