Mom and Me Mobile Medical Clinic to provide free health care

Dale Clark saw firsthand the effects that come with the lack of affordable, adequate medical care.

He witnessed one friend trying to walk through the process of getting her kids health insurance, putting her own health on the back burner. She then became violently ill, and was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer. She died a short time later at 38 years old.

Then, another friend of Clark’s, who was retired and had insurance, couldn’t afford the co-pays to go see the doctor.

“My wife said, ‘Enough ... we have to do something,”’ Clark said.

From there, the Mom and Me Mobile Medical Clinic began collecting donations in 2012, and purchased a truck and trailer in 2013 to house the medical operation.

The idea behind the mobile medical clinic is that residents in parts of East Pierce County and King County all the way up to unincorporated Greenwater often don’t have viable public transportation to get to the doctor.

“Even with the Affordable Care Act, some people still can’t afford to go to the doctor,” Clark said. “This will cut down on emergency room visits for routine medical care. There are thousands of folks that need medical care, and we won’t refuse care to anybody.”

Additionally, Patricia Hooker, treasurer of the board of directors for the medical clinic, says the mobile medical clinic can also give aid following a natural disaster such as the Oso landslide.

“We can go wherever there’s people who need care,” Hooker said.

The clinic is operated by volunteers, and will be supported financially through donations and the opening of a thrift store in Enumclaw.

Some volunteers are students in the nurse practitioner program at Pacific Lutheran University, overseen by professor Dr. Loraina Guerrero.

“It fits their mission statement, and it fits our mission statement,” Clark said of the partnership.

Clark, Hooker and the rest of the board members have worked hard fundraising through out the last two years to get the medical clinic up and running. The cost of purchasing and retrofitting the semi into a functioning medical clinic was a $150,000 undertaking. The organization worked diligently through bake sales, car washes, donations, auctions and more.

“I’ve seen a lot of people come together and donate their time,” Hooker said. “From conception to stage one, it’s been a lot of hard work and trial and error. It’s incredible to see the love that’s involved in it.”

The Mom and Me Mobile Medical Clinic is going through the final stages to get insurance to treat patients. The mobile clinic will hopefully be on the road in October, according to Hooker. Once the clinic is on the road, it will make stops through out Pierce County.

The clinic is looking for volunteers and donations. For more information, visit http://momandmemobile.org.

This story was originally published September 17, 2015 at 10:28 AM with the headline "Mom and Me Mobile Medical Clinic to provide free health care."