University to revive mobile health unit in summer

Fueled by a new, three-year federal grant, Southeast Missouri State University plans to restart its mobile health unit this summer, school officials said Monday.

Southeast Health on Wheels, or SHOW Mobile, has received a $375,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The grant will go to cover operational costs of the 38-foot-long mobile health center over the next three years, officials said.

The SHOW Mobile was the only program in Missouri to receive such federal funding.

Southeast began operating the unit last summer. But the university shut down the traveling health center in January because of the school's inability to attract the medical staff needed to provide health care to low-income patients in the Bootheel, school officials said.

University officials subsequently made plans to partner with the SEMO Health Network, a New Madrid, Mo.-based group that operates medical clinics in New Madrid, Sikeston, Bernie, Portageville and Kennett, Mo.

The federal money will allow that partnership to proceed. The mobile unit should be in operation again later this summer, university officials said.

Bobbi Morris, director of the SHOW Mobile and a member of the university's nursing department, said the goal is to increase the number of Bootheel residents who receive primary medical and dental care.

The mobile unit also will focus on decreasing chronic disease through health education, screening and care, and provide health care to low-income rural residents, Morris said.

The university will administer the program, but the mobile unit will be staffed with medical and dental personnel employed by SEMO Health Network.