PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — THE PLAYERS Championship gives local charities a way to raise awareness during tournament week and each day the tournament highlights a different charity of the day.
Thursday’s charity of the day is the Ascension St. Vincent Foundation.
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The foundation has been able to help the underserved community throughout Northeast Florida.
Their mobile health outreach ministry is basically a doctor’s office on wheels.
It’s staffed with physicians and nurses to provide primary care and medication to those in need, especially in rural counties.
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Nurse Claudia Portell gave us look inside the Ascension St. Vincent mobile health outreach ministry.
“This is where we would do a patient check in. So, think like at your doctor’s office where you have your blood pressure, your height, and your weight, all that. We would do that here,” Portell said.
All the necessary equipment is on board including an exam room.
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Virginia Hall, the President of the Ascension St. Vincent’s Foundation, said the pandemic has only increased the number of patients these mobile units serve.
Last year, the mobile health clinics helped more than 5,900 hundred patients.
“What we’re seeing is a lot of patients who maybe had insurance at one time and now they don’t and maybe they’re only working part time because of family issues,” Hall said.
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The foundation helps those who are uninsured and from low-income families and for many of those patients, transportation is an issue.
“We try to eliminate that as a barrier, so we take our mobile units to the communities where the patients need to the services,” Portell said.
Photos: Day 1 at THE PLAYERS Championship in Ponte Vedra Beach