Dr. Kenny Banh, medical director for UCSF Fresno Mobile Health, is an emergency medicine doctor who assisted patients during the mobile health program's launch Tuesday. Photo by Alex Scott

The Fresno County Department of Public Health (FCDPH) launched its first rural mobile health event Tuesday.

A collaborative including UCSF, Saint Agnes Medical Center and Fresno State’s Mobile Health Unit will provide medical services at no cost to agricultural workers and residents in rural areas of Fresno County. Community health workers will also be on hand educating patients on various health-related topics and connecting individuals with primary care in their area.

The program — funded for two years with $8 million in American Rescue Plan Act dollars —  will help relieve pressure on a local hospital system struggling with overwhelmed emergency departments.

To reach as many people as possible, program events will be scheduled on evenings and weekends.

“We want to teach the next generation of physicians and nurses how to go beyond the clinic wall type of care for the underserved communities in our rural areas, and really try to help keep some of our workforce here because we do have a shortage of medical providers in the Central Valley,” said Dr. Trinidad Solis, deputy health officer, FCDPH.

According to Solis, a major component of the program involves community health workers addressing the social needs of patients. The care network is composed of seven community-based organizations and collectively speaks over 15 languages to bridge the language gap between patient and provider.

“I’m very excited to share that Fresno County is one of the first counties to have such a holistic model where a patient can have their medical needs addressed and they can also have their social needs addressed in one visit,” said Solis.

The mobile health program launched on Tuesday, with more than 100 agricultural workers at Terranova Ranch in the western Fresno County community of Helm lining up and waiting to receive care . The Fresno Center and Centro La Familia Advocacy Services were in attendance and offered information on their services as well as COVID wellness kits.

According to Dr. Kenny Banh, this program will help patients combat health problems they may know they have but don’t have time to get treatment for, or problems yet unnoticed.

Banh is medical director for UCSF Fresno Mobile Health and COVID-19 Equity Project, as well as an emergency medicine doctor who was assisting with patients during the program’s launch. He emphasized the importance of providing care to everyone, especially those who help fuel the local economy.

“We don’t talk enough about really how many essential workers there are, and how many people that we need to operate and make things work, whether it’s cleaning the floors of the hospital or picking our almonds. These are essential workers — we have to keep them healthy for their sake, for our economy and our region,” said Banh.

At the launch UCSF staff provided patients with stations where they could get their blood pressure, blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C checked if they are diabetic.

According to Banh, the rural mobile health program will expand services as time goes on, including chemistries, cholesterol checks, electrocardiograms, ultrasounds and sexual health and STI services.