Newswise — Asthma patient Michelle Boens, 13, can breathe easier knowing that care is a short ride away, thanks to Loyola's Pediatric Mobile Health Unit, which celebrates its 10th anniversary on Monday, October 27.
Boens has been treated for asthma by health care providers in the Pediatric Mobile Health Unit of the Ronald McDonald® Children's Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center since the clinic opened its doors in 1998.
"The care my daughter receives from Loyola's Pediatric Mobile Health Unit has kept her asthma under control and prevented her from missing school," said mother Michelle Boens.
The mobile unit is a 13-ton, 40-foot health facility that travels to schools throughout Chicago and its suburbs to treat medically underserved children each weekday. The clinic on wheels was the first of its kind in the Midwest. It offers routine physical examinations, immunizations, health screenings, educational sessions, lab tests, asthma checks and prenatal visits.
"The tenth anniversary of Loyola's Pediatric Mobile Health Unit marks a decade of providing care and improving the quality of life for children in underprivileged communities," said Susan Finn, MSN, program director, Pediatric Mobile Health Unit. "Nearly 86,000 uninsured and underinsured children have benefited from this program, which has led to reduced school absences and emergency department visits."
Based in the western suburbs of Chicago, Loyola University Health System is a quaternary care system with a 61-acre main medical center campus, the 36-acre Gottlieb Memorial Hospital campus and 25 primary and specialty care facilities in Cook, Will and DuPage counties. The medical center campus is conveniently located in Maywood, 13 miles west of the Chicago Loop and 8 miles east of Oak Brook, Ill. The heart of the medical center campus, Loyola University Hospital, is a 570-licensed bed facility. It houses a Level 1 Trauma Center, a Burn Center and the Ronald McDonald® Children's Hospital of Loyola University Medical Center. Also on campus are the Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, Loyola Outpatient Center, Center for Heart & Vascular Medicine and Loyola Oral Health Center as well as the LUC Stritch School of Medicine, the LUC Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing and the Loyola Center for Health & Fitness. Loyola's Gottlieb campus in Melrose Park includes the 250-bed community hospital, the Gottlieb Health & Fitness Center and the Marjorie G. Weinberg Cancer Care Center.
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