Mobile Clinic Is Safety Net For The Safety Net

A dozen people sat in the church basement, now serving as a makeshift waiting room. Their clinic was parked outside.

The Malta House of Care, a medical clinic aboard a 36-foot Winnebago, provides free health care to uninsured residents. Four afternoons a week, it parks outside a different Hartford church and takes patients on a first-come, first-served basis. Prospective patients often show up several hours early.

While many clinics for the uninsured focus on episodic care, Malta House of Care treats most of its patients on an ongoing basis, providing primary care and managing chronic diseases. Some 2,000 patients receive regular care aboard the van.

Clinic officials call it "the provider of last resort," the safety net's safety net.

In theory, demand for the mobile clinic should dwindle in the coming years. Federal health reform is expected to expand health care coverage to 32 million Americans by 2019, making a lack of insurance far rarer than it is today.

But those working at the Malta House of Care don't expect their clinic to be obsolete anytime soon.

"There will always be a need for our services," said Dr. Laurel Baldwin-Ragaven, the clinic's medical and executive director. She said she gets questions about whether the clinic will be needed in the future "all the time."

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