Cordova Community Collaborative

C.O.W. (Clinic On Wheels)

Nov 20, 2000

Greetings Rancho Cordova! Those of you who recently have come by the Rancho Cordova Neighborhood Center on Tuesday mornings or the Department of Human Assistance on Folsom Blvd. Thursday afternoons may have noticed a big blue and white mobile van. You may have wondered why it is parked here? Well, I am here to tell you about a new service that has come to your community.
I am Sherri Rickman Patrick a Family Nurse Practitioner from the UCDavis OB/GYN Department. Myself, Dr. Zenja Watkins, Terri Rosas-Nichols, Program Manager, Lorraine Rodriguez, and Anna Fregoso, Medical Assistants, Tamara Conover, Baby Steps worker, and Wendy Plaza-Homolka, Patient Coordinator make up the Community clincs team in the OB department. On March 22, 1999, we began this outreach program, designed to provide comprehensive prenatal care to low-income women in the Sacramento area. We started with clinics in th North Highlands and South Sacramento area. In our travels, we discovered other communities were sorely lacking in services namely Del paso Heights and Rancho Cordova. So in June of this year, we began providing prenatal services to the women living in Del Paso Heights and Rancho Cordova. We have established wonderful working partnerships with Birth & Beyond, WIC and the Daprtment of Human Assistance in these communities. We also recently started two clincs with Birth & Beyond's assistance in Arden Arcade and Meadowview.
To return to the question at hand, why there is a mobile van parked here? Every Tuesday morning from 9-12 pm, I drive the C.O.W. or Clinic On Wheels to the Rancho Cordova Neighborhood Center (RCNC) 10665 Coloma Road and on Thurday afternoons from 1-4 pm at the Department of Human Assistance DHA) 10013 Folsom Blvd. I set up shop in the parking lot and see prenatal patients. The patients seem to enjoy the initmate nature of this mobile clinic offers. The team thoroughly enjoys traveling around Sacramento providing prenatal services to those women who would otherwise have difficulty traveling to the clinic at UCD Medical Center. Along with comprehensive care, we also have a free gift program, which includes a gift after 8 clinic visits; after delivering at the Medical Center and keeping her postpartum appointment, an umbrella stroller; and a $30 gift certificate for any referrals. We can provide 41 different languages for patients with help fron our Interpreting Services Department. We can assist with transportation on those times when it becomes necessary for the patient to travel down to the Medical Center, say for her ultrasound, with bus passes; and on those rare occassions, usually when labor is just arouond the corner, with a taxi voucher. We try to make the experience of pregnacy as joyous as possible by helping to break down those obstacles that can seem so overwhelming when facing them alone.
So, I invite you to stop on by and say Hi. I always enjoy giving the nickel tour of our special clinic. And if the need should arise, you can always get a free pregnancy test with verification. If you have any questions, please give Wndy a call at 734-6982.