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Taking Healthcare to the Streets

Pediatric Mobile Health Unit
The Pediatric Mobile Health Unit’s Susan Finn, A.P.N. (left), and Linda Rush (right) join Naperville School District 203’s Debbie Baker, R.N., in front of the unit.
Mobile unit helps keep underserved children healthy

Corey, a resident of Chicago’s North Lawndale neighborhood, is an unusual eighth-grader. While his peers spend their summers playing basketball and video games, he’s helping teens learn about HIV/AIDS. Corey is a speaker in a new program, sponsored by Sannkofa and the Illinois Department of Public Health, that educates youth about the deadly disease. Corey never pictured himself as a leader in peer health education. He suffered from severe asthma, and his parents could not access good medical care.Through the help of the Loyola University Health System Pediatric Mobile Health Unit (PMHU), he and his sister were both diagnosed with asthma, and they learned to minimize the triggers that exacerbated their condition.


Susan Finn, A.P.N., cares for Christopher Hernandez while his mother, Maria Sanchez, lends support.

Loyola University Pediatric Mobile Health Unit

Established in 1998, the unit has:

  • Served just under 70,000 children.
  • Provided 20,732 immunizations.
  • Given 24,000 physical exams.
  • Led 41,000 educational sessions.
  • Performed tens of thousands of dental and vision screenings, lab tests, asthma patient visits and prenatal checkups.

"It’s really made a difference not only in their health status, but it also seems that their self esteem is stronger.They feel better about themselves,” says Susan Finn, A.P.N., a nurse practitioner and interim manager of the PMHU.

The PMHU is the first “doctor’s office on wheels” of its kind in the Midwest. Finn and her staff provide medical care to underserved and uninsured children like Corey and his sister at no cost to their families. The PMHU is on the road six days a week this summer, visiting community fairs and making regular stops at schools, churches, community organizations like Hull House and Catholic Charities, and other venues.

Three-time Loyola alum Finn (B.S.N. ’77, M.S.N. ’86, P.N.P. post-master’s ’01) is proud of the help her team provides to the children who, due to their families’ income or parents’ employment status, do not have regular healthcare.

“Keeping children healthy, keeping them in school, gives them their best chance to succeed,” Finn says.“The children are really the reason we’re here. Seeing them in our daily clinic is tremendous. It’s really very rewarding to feel like you make a difference one day at a time.”

APRIL SPECHT