Rural Student/resident Research Grants

RURAL STUDENT/RESIDENT RESEARCH GRANTS Project: Mobile Medical Outreach to the Homeless Student: Caleb Huff, MS IV and Matt Curry, MS IV Mentor: Charles Clements, MD The Marshall Medical Outreach began with the goal of bringing healthcare to those who often fall between the cracks of society, i.e. the homeless. These individuals are often unable to get proper medical treatment or are unaware of which services are available. The hypothesis is that the homeless have many obstacles to attaining quality healthcare, such as lacking transportation, and being unaware of the services available to them. We decided that bringing healthcare and social services to the people where they live will improve access to healthcare and improve the likelihood of the homeless getting plugged into the system. The study will consist of a base-line survey and assessment involving a questionnaire that will inquire into the participant’s previous experiences with healthcare, education level, previous medical history, etc. We will use local social workers to meet with each participant and assess their individual eligibility for which services are available to them. Positive outcomes include picking up a prescription, establishing with a primary care physician outside of the medical outreach, returning for another visit to our medical outreach, following up with a specialist, following up for psychiatric needs, or establishing with a counselor. The milestones for this project are to see if the work we are doing at the Huntington riverfront with the homeless is making a difference in terms of increasing patient compliance and likelihood of following-up.