Penn State’s LION Mobile Clinic is planning to expand its fleet this summer and is working to connect with other mobile clinics in the state. This comes as pharmacies and medical clinics close across the country.
But mobile clinic organizers say they’re only part of the solution to declining health care access in rural communities, such as Snow Shoe.
On the main street in Snow Shoe sits the old Mountaintop Area Medical Center. It was the only clinic in the borough. It closed back in 2021, just a year after Snow Shoe’s only pharmacy — inside the same building — also closed.
Outside in the parking lot is the LION Mobile Clinic. It's a white bus with a big plus sign on the side. A table sits beside it with informational brochures.
“We have an on-site visit with our mobile clinic today where we're doing blood pressure screenings. We can do glucose screenings," said Heather Perry, the LION Mobile Clinic's project manager.
Perry said the clinic goes to Snow Shoe about twice a month, and makes a couple of other stops every week, mostly around Centre County. They bring along medical and pre-med students to help with screenings and education.
“This counts as clinic time for our med students. A lot of on-hand, rural experience [with] various populations. We started this around 18 months ago, so nearly two years. We also go to local farms within the central area," Perry said.
Perry said there is always a physician supervising students.
David Lynch is one of the medical professionals in the clinic. He’s a coordinator with the Evangelical Community Hospital in Lewisburg, which provides the bus. Funding for the clinic comes from grants and donations.
Lynch gave a tour, starting at the entrance.
“Right here where you're standing, this is our laboratory area and registration area. So we're a licensed clinical laboratory," Lynch said.
There is also a chair, making the room triple as an exam room. In the back of the bus is another exam room with a retractable door. The other end is the driver’s area.
Lynch said they can perform preventative checkups, give flu and COVID booster vaccines, and check glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure.
Lynch was a paramedic for 31 years and has a master’s in public health. He has worked with the LION Mobile Clinic for about a year to help with screenings. He said the consistency in visits since then has helped build trust with the community.
“If they know we're going to be there this day of the month, every month, and we provide the care and we're friendly, and we treat them well, then that builds that trust. That builds a relationship," Lynch said.
He has seen people’s health improve over his time working with the clinic.
“I've had several people that when they initially came for a screen had poor numbers of cholesterol or blood pressures. Because of continuing coming back and getting the education we provide for those things, have now got those numbers under control," Lynch said.
But sometimes the clinic can’t get patients’ medical conditions under control. That’s when Lynch says they refer them to a brick-and-mortar doctor’s office with more resources.
Another goal of the mobile clinic is to encourage healthy living.
Across from the bus and inside the old Mountaintop Area Medical Center is the senior community center, where the mobile clinic was hosting a cooking class. Three Penn State medical students showed four tables full of older women how to make a kale salad.
The women said the mobile clinic is convenient. While they do have cars, they say it’s nice to get checkups and healthy food without having to make a long drive down the mountain.
“My vision for going into the medical field is just to help as many people in as many ways as I can," said Charlotte Pollard, one of the students leading the class and a third-year pre-medicine major at Penn State. “I'm from North Carolina. So there is a lot of underserved communities there. And it's nice to see that, like, people are trying to help them in any way that they can.”
While the cooking class continued, the mobile clinic’s director stopped by from time to time. Michael McShane is also an internal medicine physician and assistant professor of medicine for Penn State Health and the Penn State College of Medicine.
McShane said he splits his time between clinic patients and home visits. He also helps patients get health insurance to pay for the house calls, or he helps them become patients with Centre Volunteers in Medicine, which he volunteers with.
McShane said he wants to promote health in ways that are unconventional for a doctor, too.
“We today delivered a couple of meals to those people in the community, including the salad that we cooked today for one of the individuals to provide that healthy food option that otherwise wouldn't be able to access it," McShane said.
Snow Shoe lost its grocery store to a fire in 2020. A Dollar General and Family Dollar later opened, but McShane said they don’t sell fresh produce.
“I think with the loss of the grocery store, you see that huge need in the community and how impactful food is to someone's overall health," McShane said.
McShane said rural communities across Pennsylvania are facing struggles similar to the ones in Snow Shoe.
“It goes beyond just sort of the decline medically that's happening with closure of clinics or pharmacies. There's downturn economically, there's housing instability, there are all these other factors that are playing a huge part in the decline of communities," McShane said.
But McShane said mobile clinics are only a stop-gap. For example, he can write prescriptions, but the LION Mobile Clinic isn’t equipped to fill them like a pharmacy.
McShane said it can also be difficult to find staff with the right skill sets for a mobile unit.
“You know, we sit here in a 37-foot RV. [It's] hard to drive. So, making sure you have the right staffing for people that can [be] able to drive and also can provide potential medical care... it’s challenging to figure that out," McShane said.
There are at least 30 other mobile clinics in Pennsylvania.
Some focus on pediatric care, breast cancer screenings or dental care. McShane says he’s been in talks with those clinics to create a statewide coalition to form partnerships and find solutions.
The LION Mobile Clinic is looking to serve more communities outside of Centre County.
McShane said new grant funding from the United States Department of Agriculture will help them go to those more rural locations, including farming communities.
“We're close to expanding. We're in the process of building two additional units that would be available for us to go to different locations," McShane said.
McShane said those two new units should be ready by the summer. Until then, he said the current bus will keep making trips to Snow Shoe and other nearby rural communities to maintain their health and trust.
