St. John's Hospital in Far Rockaway unveils new mobile health unit

The roughly 33-foot long St. John’s Episcopal Hospital’s new mobile health unit stood idle in the Far Rockaway facility’s parking lot on May 19, but its engine is expected to be revved up to bring at least 15 different medical services to people on the Rockaway Peninsula.

At a public unveiling of the new vehicle that St. John’s purchased through a collaboration with the Mill Neck Family of Organization, which includes the Mill Neck School for the Deaf, the Mill Neck Foundation, Mill Neck Manor and two other service groups.    

Noting that the peninsula is primarily an underserved community when it comes to health services, St. John’s Chief Executive Officer Jerry Walsh said that the vehicle, which resembles a city bus and could be considered a recreational vehicle, will play a vital role to increase access to medical services.

“This community has suffered,” Walsh said.” They suffered through Covid. They have suffered through insufficient access for years to services. And over the last five or six years, we’ve really tried to change that. And we have been changing that, and this van will help us literally take our show on the road, and provide those services to people who have transportation issues, and other issues that might prevent them from making it to the hospital or one of our ambulatory centers to get care.”

Walsh said that St. John’s has multiple practices throughout the Rockaways, including a “major presence” in the building on 105th street with the hospital occupying 75 percent of the building.

“We are making a dent in providing easier access to care for the community and our patients and their family members, so they don’t have to leave the peninsula to get services,” he said.

The Mill Neck Family of Organizations connected with Nancy Leghart, St. John’s director of Development. “We had this RV as a hearing, health mobile unit, but we were not using it to capacity and when I was talking with Nancy Leghart she was telling us what you need in your community and we thought this is a great partnership. Why not have this beautiful RV be used to serve all the people of the community,” said Dr. Asiah Mason, the Family Organizations’ CEO. 

Mason said that the Mill Neck group is a Lutheran-based organization that believes in neighborhood and helping people. “Health equity means everyone has access,” she said. “We know that is what St. John’s is about, making sure everyone has access to health care. So, we’re so proud to be able to share this and transfer this beautiful mobile unit to you and we hope that we’ll do other things.” Mason said that Mill Neck will be available for auditory and interpretative services.

Many people and hospital departments are behind the scenes, said Lorna Manning, the assistant vice president of St. John’s  Population Health that is in charge of where the mobile unit goes. “We’re here to respond to that call,” she said. “The mobile unit will take us where you live, work and raise your families.”

According to a recent New York State Department of Health-sponsored Community Health Needs Assessment, transportation to and from health care facilities is a top 10 concern for residents in the Rockaways, Dr. Donald Morrish, St. John’s chief medical officer, said.  

"We are literally driving the health care services of the peninsula directly to the communities in which they live,” he said. “This mobile health unit will help solve the transportation issue as it is dispatched throughout the Rockaway Peninsula.”