February 14, 2017

Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC) of Greater Houston/Galveston in conjunction with Texas Children’s Hospital recently announced the unveiling of its new Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® medical unit. Operated by Texas Children’s, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® is a state-of-the-art, fully-equipped pediatric clinic on wheels designed to meet the health care and treatment needs of children in the Greater Houston and Galveston area.

The medical unit was unveiled at a ribbon cutting ceremony with special guest and speaker Mayor Sylvester Turner on February 10 at the McDonald’s restaurant located at 1619 South Loop West.

“I am excited about this wonderful collaboration between Ronald McDonald House Charities and Texas Children’s Hospital,” the mayor said. “Thanks to Ronald McDonald Care Mobile®, many children in our community will have access to immunizations, well-child and urgent care visits, vision and hearing screenings, free medicine through an on-site pharmacy, and specialty care referrals, including mental health and social service referrals.”

In addition, Sylvester said, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® also will be offering sports physicals, allowing more area youngsters to have the opportunity to participate in school athletics.

Staffed by pediatricians, nurse practitioners, nurses, and medical assistants from Texas Children’s, Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will provide medical care to more than 3,000 children per year in a 60-mile radius around the Texas Medical Center. The new unit’s arrival is expected to expand service reach by 10 percent in the first year.

Tanya Gee, Executive Director of RMHC® Houston & Galveston said that working in partnership with community health care leaders, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® bridges gaps between underserved children and local community agencies.

“It travels to locations lacking pediatric resources or underutilizing existing ones,” Gee said. “We want to thank our partners at Texas Children’s for their tireless dedication to our shared mission of service to the children of Houston and the local McDonald’s Owner for their incredible generosity.”

President of Texas Children’s Pediatrics Kay Tittle said her organization is looking forward to the continued impact the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will have on families in Houston.

“At Texas Children’s, our goal is to build a community of healthy children, and our mobile clinics allow us to provide trusted, high-quality medical services to children who normally might not have the opportunity to receive health care,” Tittle said.

The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile medical unit was made possible by a donation of $400,000 from the McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association of Greater Houston. Through its Fry Fund initiative, Houston area McDonald’s restaurants donated three cents for every case of French fries sold over the past four years.

“As local business people, we are committed to supporting the communities we live and work in,” said President of the McDonald’s Owner/Operators Association of Greater Houston Matthew Kades. “The families served by the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® are our neighbors. McDonald’s is a big brand, and with partners like Ronald McDonald House Charities® and Texas Children’s Hospital, we can make a big impact right here in Greater Houston.”

Texas Children’s Executive Vice President Michelle Riley-Brown said that to date, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® has served more than 40,000 patients, and with this incredible updated unit, the impact will only continue to grow.

“Thanks you to everyone for your continued support of our Mobile Clinic Program,” Riley-Brown said. “We are looking forward to the continued impact the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile® will have on families in Houston.”

For more information about our Mobile Clinic Program click here. For more information about Ronald McDonald House Charities® click here.

August 23, 2016

82416minimobileclinicinsideRev640The Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program has expanded with the addition of the CARESQUAD, a bright yellow mini-mobile clinic generously donated to the hospital by The Jerold B. Katz Foundation.

The clinic will help carry out the mission of the Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program, which is to provide underserved children in the Houston area with comprehensive health care and preventive education. The smaller size of the new mobile clinic will allow caregivers to reach children and families who live in and around neighborhoods with limited parking and narrow streets.

“The addition of the CARESQUAD to the Mobile Clinic Program is going to make a huge difference in the lives of so many children and their families,” said Dr. Sanghamitra Misra, medical director of the Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program. “We are excited about getting the clinic on the road and are grateful to the Katz family for making the clinic possible.”

At a recent dedication of the CARESQUAD mini-mobile clinic, Evan H. Katz said his family is thrilled to unveil the clinic and is confident it will go a long way in helping area children receive basic health care.

“For our family, this gift is special,” Katz said. “It is close to our hearts because we realize that we are assisting families with that most necessary ingredient to a good life – health.”

In addition to the program’s newest addition, The Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program is composed of two clinics: the Superkids Mobile Clinic and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. During the school year, the Super Kids Mobile Clinic travels primarily to Houston Independent School District schools, community centers and churches in the Southwest Gulfton area. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile travels primarily to HISD schools and community centers in the Southeast Hobby area. The CARESQUAD will be used all over the region, accessing places the clinics have not been able to reach before.

The clinics provide free vaccinations to those who qualify for the Texas Vaccines for Children program and also provide free well child visits, sick visits and hearing or vision screenings for uninsured children in the Houston area. In addition, both mobile clinics have pharmacies that are stocked with common medications that are provided free of charge to uninsured families. Providers can perform common laboratory tests and educate all patients coming through the clinic about the different insurance options available to them. In the summer, the clinics travel throughout the Houston area and surrounding areas to provide free vaccines to children before the school year starts.

March 31, 2015

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Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program hosted the Fourth Annual Texas Mobile Health Clinics Regional Coalition Meeting March 20 at Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus.

Forty mobile clinic professionals – the largest turnout in the conference’s four-year history – attended the half-day event designed so that attendees could share information about a service that brings quality medical care to those who can’t easily access it.

“The time we have at this conference is invaluable,” said Texas Children’s Pediatrics President Kay Tittle. “It’s the one time a year we can get together, talk shop and gain knowledge about how we can improve what we do.”

In addition to sharing knowledge, five conference participants, including Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program, brought their mobile clinics to West Campus for all to see.

“Having this hands-on learning tool was wonderful,” Tittle said. “It was nice to see how other hospitals do things.”

The Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program is composed of two clinics: The Superkids Mobile Clinic and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. The mission of the program is to provide underserved children in the Houston area with comprehensive health care and preventive education.

During the school year, the Super Kids Mobile Clinic travels primarily to Houston Independent School District schools, community centers and churches in the Southwest Gulfton area. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile travels primarily to HISD schools, community centers and churches in the Southeast Hobby area.

The clinic provides free vaccinations to those who qualify for the Texas Vaccines for Children program and also provides free well child visits, sick visits and hearing or vision screenings for uninsured children in the Houston area. In addition, both mobile clinics have pharmacies that are stocked with common medications.

The providers can perform common laboratory tests. Lastly, providers and staff members educate all patients coming through the clinic about the different insurance options available to them.

In the summer, the clinics travel throughout the Houston area and sometimes even further to provide free vaccines to children before the school year starts.

February 24, 2015

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Texas Children’s Mobile Clinics are now equipped with EPIC, allowing medical staff to offer a more thorough continuum of care.

“We aim to find medical homes for all our families,” said Dr. Sanghamitra Misra, medical director of the Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program. “Now that we are entering our clinic notes into EPIC, any practitioner within the Texas Children’s system can read our notes to understand a patient’s history and diagnoses. This provides continuity of care that we have never had before.”

As a result, follow-up care, even if it takes place in the emergency room, can be more coordinated. With a simple keyboard stroke, medical staff organization-wide can access information about patients treated at the mobile clinics. In turn, staff at the mobile clinics can track their patients’ follow-up care.

“We often care for children on the mobile clinics who suffer from chronic illnesses and need follow-up care,” Misra said. “With Epic, we can more easily get them into a medical home and, if needed, a referral to a Texas Children’s specialist.

Texas Children’s Pediatric President Kay Tittle said the move to putting the mobile clinics on EPIC is a positive one that will provide better documentation of the patients seen through the Mobile Clinic Program.

“Our patients will benefit from it and so will our medical staff,” Tittle said. “It’s a win-win for everyone involved.”

The Texas Children’s Mobile Clinic Program is composed of two clinics: The Superkids Mobile Clinic and the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile. The mission of the program is to provide underserved children in the Houston area with comprehensive health care and preventive education.

During the school year, the Super Kids Mobile Clinic travels primarily to Houston Independent School District schools, community centers and churches in the Southwest Gulfton area. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile travels primarily to HISD schools, community centers and churches in the Southeast Hobby area.

The clinic provides free vaccinations to those who qualify for the Texas Vaccines for Children program and also provides free well child visits, sick visits and hearing or vision screenings for uninsured children in the Houston area. In addition, both mobile clinics have pharmacies that are stocked with common medications. The providers can perform common laboratory tests. Lastly, providers and staff members educate all patients coming through the clinic about the different insurance options available to them.

In the summer, the clinics travel throughout the Houston area and sometimes even further to provide free vaccines to children before the school year starts.