CHCC debuts first mobile clinic

Members of the CNMI community check out Thursday the newest addition to CHCC’s medical resources—a customized bus that will serve as a mobile clinic—as it was parked at CHCC’s ample parking lot. (KIMBERLY ESMORES)

The Commonwealth Healthcare Corp. officially introduced the CNMI’s first mobile clinic to the community last Thursday and is now gearing up to officially launch the clinic-on-wheels to villages on Saipan.

Members of the CNMI community were invited Thursday for a tour of the newest addition to CHCC’s medical resources—a customized bus that will serve as a mobile clinic, funded by the Northern Marianas Housing Corp.’s Community Development Block Grant program
Aside from members of the community, a handful of legislators came out to witness the unveiling of the mobile clinic. Students from Northern Marianas College, NMHC representatives, and CHCC staff also came out to take a tour of the top-of-the-line medical bus.
CHCC CEO Esther Muña said the mobile clinic is a wonderful gift not only to CHCC, but to the community as well. “This is really a very wonderful gift. We’re now able to bring our providers out to the community and the mobile clinic is already set up and it has everything that we need. It’s just perfect for us. We’re really grateful,” she said.

Muña said the mobile clinic will not only help those who lack transportation to go to CHCC for medical assistance, but it will also help CHCC reach more people in case any natural disaster were to strike the CNMI in the future.

“When NMHC approached us to get the mobile clinic, we thought about what has happened in the past when we were trying to bring health care to the villages, to people that really don’t have access to get to the hospital. We saw that in [Super] Typhoon Yutu. And now this is an opportunity to prepare ourselves,” she said.

According to Dave Baker, chairman of the board for Federally Qualified Healthcare Saipan, the mobile clinic is a great addition to CHCC’s services.

“The mobile clinic is really great for the community. We’re able to get everywhere across the island for people that don’t have transportation or it might be convenient for community members to stop off at the clinic. Maybe it’s stationed over at the library or maybe its stationed one day over at the airport. So we’re able to go around the community for those people that need services. When you look on board, it has the ability to provide several types of health care services, not just immunization, but there’s other types of services that can be provided there. We’re very grateful that it’s here and I think our community is going to love it,” he said.
CHCC chief of clinics, Halina Palacios, said the first mobile clinic outreach is currently set for September. “This arrived about three weeks ago and with the mobile clinic came somebody that will train our staff on how to turn it on, get it going, and all the specifications. So we’re just working on the details and we plan to have our first outreach by the end of September,” she said.
Palacios added that the mobile clinic is a $400,000 project made possible under the NMHC CDBG program.

“This mobile clinic is a $400,000 vehicle. In 2020, there were initial talks about a possible funding opportunity through a block grant with NMHC. So that 2021 dream has now become a reality. They funded this mobile clinic. We just did the minimal work. We found the vendor, we gave them our specifications needed to better serve our community, but NMHC through the block grant paid for this. They also assisted us with all the various registration fees to make sure that it’s good to go,” she said.