Healthy Mujeres in the Texas Rio Grande Valley

Description

In 2020, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine launched the Healthy Mujeres program to provide women's healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, including colonias on the U.S.-Mexico border. The program uses a mobile health unit model in combination with community clinics, making services more accessible to women by bringing services to their communities. The mobile clinic, UniMóvil, travels to different communities and provides preventive care, contraception, and pregnancy testing and pregnancy confirmation ultrasounds.

Healthy Mujeres is funded through multiple grants. The program can bill insurance but also has funding to cover costs for uninsured and underinsured patients.

For more information about this program, you can watch this video:

Services offered

Healthy Mujeres has a mobile clinic called UniMóvil, which contains diagnostic equipment, a lab, and two exam rooms. UniMóvil is staffed by:

• Two obstetrician-gynecologists
• Family nurse practitioner with expertise in women's health
• Medical assistant
• Two community health workers bilingual in English and Spanish

Services include:

• Assistance with non-medical needs, such as food and transportation
• Cervical cancer screening
• Long-acting reversible contraception
• Pregnancy testing and pregnancy confirmation ultrasounds
• Referral to specialty healthcare services
• Sexually transmitted infection testing
• Vaccination

UniMóvil travels to different locations in the five-county area near the U.S.-Mexico border, which represents a mix of urban and rural regions.

Results

Since the Healthy Mujeres program started, clinical staff have provided services to nearly 6,000 women, including:

• 2,791 pregnancy-related services
• 2,054 contraception services
• 2,720 referrals to routine or specialty care

As part of ongoing evaluation, the program analyzes monthly service utilization and shares metrics with the implementation team and the funder. In addition, patients are given the opportunity to respond to surveys to provide feedback for continuous quality improvement. The program will continue exploring ways to provide care, including expanding reach through building partnerships with clinics in the community. Program coordinators will also examine barriers and facilitators that impact the program's success.

Challenges

Costs can be high, ranging from $400,000 to $700,000 per year. Sustaining the program is also a challenge, in terms of finding long-term funding sources.

Replication

Thoughtful planning of staffing and logistics for providing services on a mobile unit is vital to making the program a success.

Contact Information

Divya Patel, PhD, Principal Investigator and Associate Professor of Epidemiology
UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in Austin
divya.patel@uth.tmc.edu