Through Medica’s $200,000 investment in Hennepin Healthcare’s Pediatric Mobile Health, the needs of more underserved families across the region will be met to help with routine childhood vaccinations and well checks.

Equitable care on the move is a trend in public health that started during the COVID19 pandemic but is here to stay. This transformative way of reaching people and meeting their health care needs in their neighborhoods or sometimes in their own homes has long lasting public health benefits.

Pediatric Mobile Health launched the spring of 2020 to provide families with basic health assessments and administer routine vaccines while many healthcare facilities closed during the early stages of the pandemic.

Recognizing this innovative way to serve our diverse communities across the Twin Cities, the Medica Foundation has awarded their prestigious 2022 Esther Tomljanovich Strategic Initiative grant to Hennepin Healthcare’s Pediatric Mobile Health.

“Pediatric Mobile Health is an innovative solution that meets children and families where they are to provide preventive care and immunizations, which is at the heart of what we do at the Medica Foundation,” said JoAnn Birkholz, Executive Director of the Medica Foundation. “Expanding the mobile clinic reduces barriers and increases health care access for more children who fell behind in their checkups during the pandemic, and we are grateful to the team at Hennepin Health for implementing this successful community-based program.”

The $200,000 investment will support the expansion of their Pediatric Mobile Health to reach children and families in schools, at Head Start programs, and even contribute resources for food and housing assistance. The Medica Foundation was one of the projects initial funders previously awarding $50,000 over the last two years specifically addressing vaccination needs.

"Thanks to the ability to meet families where they live, learn and play, we've helped protect more than 1200 patients from vaccine preventable diseases," explains Pediatric Mobile Health Medical Director Sheyanga Beecher CNP MSN MPH. "This kind of outreach to provide immunizations and preventive healthcare was born out of necessity and has since grown into a trusted program well integrated into neighborhoods and community. We are incredibly grateful to Medica and those that shared the same vision to move this program forward to meet patients where they are.”

This expansion allows them to increase the frequency of pop-up clinics, improve vaccine confidence, and increase the number of families that are vaccinated in socially vulnerable neighborhoods.

If news media outlets are interested in coordinating video and interviews inside the Pediatric Mobile Health unit please reach out to Christine Hill from Hennepin Healthcare:

Email: christine.hill@hcmed.org

Phone: 612-873-5719 | Mobile: 612-919-8711

About Medica

Medica (www.medica.com) is a health plan headquartered in Minnesota. The company serves communities in the heart of America by providing health care coverage and related services in the employer, individual, Medicaid and Medicare markets. It operates in Minnesota, Arizona, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Wyoming. The Medica Foundation is a nonprofit, charitable grant-making foundation. It is an affiliate of Medica Health Plans. The Esther Tomljanovich Strategic Initiative is named after the Foundation’s long time board member, former state Supreme Court judge, Esther Tomljanovich. Medica’s vision is to be trusted in the community for our unwavering commitment to high quality, affordable health care.

About Hennepin Healthcare

Hennepin Healthcare is an integrated system of care that includes HCMC, a nationally recognized Level I Adult Trauma Center and Level I Pediatric Trauma Center and acute care hospital, as well as a clinic system with primary care clinics located in Minneapolis and across Hennepin County.

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