Mobile primary care in North College Hill provides free health services for the community

Chris Faust, CEO of Clovernook Center for the Blind and Visually Impaired, is committed to the organization’s mission to serve the people who need it most. His primary focus is about collaboration and the delivery of critical services at the community level.

“One of those things that I have always believed in is collaboration and partnership,” he says. “We have been partnering for several years with the Cincinnati Eye institute Foundation. Deaconess has provided services through their mobile health clinic. We have a facility that has space in which we can all work together.”

The stars have aligned for the benefit of citizens in North College Hill and the surrounding communities.

Clovernook and the Deaconess Associations Foundation are providing free health services through the Deaconess Health Check Mobile Primary Care program. Unique in Cincinnati, the program aims to change and improve lives by providing health services to neighborhoods that need it most.

These services will be at the Procter Building, named after William Procter who bought the land in 1903 so the Trader sisters could start Clovernook.

Deaconess Health Check Mobile Primary Care provides free health services to the community including annual physicals and wellness exams; sick visits; preventative health services like flu shots and pap tests; treatments of minor injuries; lab services; and more. The mobile team includes a nurse practitioner, medical assistant, and practice manager, overseen by a medical director.

Faust explains that the plan is to be able to use this as a model to take into other communities.

“You do not need to be blind to use it,” he says. “It is fully open to the community at large.”

While the facility is located in North College Hill and near Northside, it is available to any individual — regardless of geography or the ability to pay. The center does accept insurance and Medicaid. Services are free for those who do not have insurance or means.

Faust adds that the center is designed to treat all ages. He believes that these services are something that should be available to everyone in the community.

“That is the beauty of it,” he says. “It is fully inclusive. By providing these services, you make everyone in the community better, and it makes the community a better place to work and live.”

Faust adds, “The typical patient is a single parent, families with one or two children [who] may not have insurance. They are looking for basic health care and need help without having to spend money.”

“Deaconess Health Check Mobile Primary Care, in collaboration with partners like Clovernook Center, allows us to extend much-needed medical care throughout our city,” says Tony Woods, chairman of the Deaconess Associations Foundation. “Access to comprehensive, quality health care is critical for maintaining health, preventing and managing disease, reducing unnecessary disability, and achieving health equity in our community.”

The Deaconess Health Check Mobile Primary Care program will be stationed at the Clovernook Center in North College Hill at the Procter Center, 1574 Claretta Avenue, from 8:30 a.m.–4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, January 29. Starting in February, the team will be onsite at Clovernook three days a month from 8:30 a.m. –4:00 p.m. on the first Friday of the month, as well as the second and fourth Wednesdays.