UI Mobile Clinic celebrates 20 years

IOWA CITY — For 20 years, the University of Iowa Mobile Clinic has transformed gymnasiums, senior centers and churches into temporary clinic for underrepresented populations in and around Iowa City.

The clinic has offered free medical care for immigrants and refugees, homeless people, and low-income residents since 2002. As a student organization, the clinic is made up of an executive board with four faculty advisers and eight students. While the clinic is volunteer-based and student ran, physicians monitor the students when they’re seeing patients.

The clinic operated out of a refurbished bus until 2009 when it was decommissioned, and now clinic sites at 14 locations operate on a monthly or bimonthly basis. Undergraduates can help translate, first-year medical students can do labs and vitals, second-year medical students perform physical exams and third-year students can do a full patient visit.

Denise Martinez, the vice president of health parity and faculty director of the clinic, said a site usually sees six to 12 patients.

Morgan Kennedy, a rising fourth-year medical student at the Carver College of Medicine and clinic operations executive of the mobile clinic, said the clinic also helps students by giving them experience.

“Students get to have a lot of a lot of patient interaction, and learning and insight experiences,” Kennedy said.

20 years of growth

The clinic grew out of a grant that a medical student received for a project in October 2001. Penny Rembolt, a retired employee from the university’s Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum, was asked to serve as an adviser for a project, which was an outreach clinic for the homeless population in Iowa City.

What started as a general wellness clinic at a former shelter house on Davenport Street transformed into a free health care program for undeserved and uninsured residents. The project received a grant from the AAMC Caring Communities Program that would fund the clinic, and continued to be awarded grants the next three years.

Rembolt served as one of two advisers for the clinic for 15 years. She said it was able to grow by partnering with different organizations, such as the Emma Goldman Clinic to host Women’s Health Nights.

“Emma Goldman's providers would work with our students help do all kinds of exams, women's exams,“ Rembolt said. ”And they played games that were kind of educational about women's health.“

Kennedy said the mobile clinic continues to host a women’s clinic once a semester, where patients are able to see a gynecologist and receive Pap smears for cervical cancer screening.

Martinez said the clinic also is working with institutions such as the Johnson County Public Health and University of Iowa College of Pharmacy to provide COVID-19 vaccines.

“We've got a really low-barrier way for folks, especially who might not always trust the system, to come and get to get their vaccines,” Martinez said. “We're really trusted in a lot of these communities.”

Looking ahead

The clinic received a four-year, $1.8 million grant in 2021 from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration and hopes to expand training for counseling and psychology doctoral and master’s students in social work and specialization in mental health services. Next year, an advocacy director position will be added.

For long-term goals, Kennedy hopes to increase specialty care for patients through partnerships with the UI. She has seen the mobile clinic make a significant impact through services such as vaccinations and has built trust in the communities.

“I also think one of the biggest things was just education about health care, and introducing patients that are maybe coming from elsewhere and have had poor experiences with the U.S. health care system, and kind of reintroducing them to a really wonderful health care experience,” Kennedy said.