The doctor is behind the wheel as the van pulls into a Shell station in Santa Monica, where a 36-year-old man with a serious heart condition lives in the parking lot.
Venice Family Clinic street medicine team member Francesca Reinisch, a physician assistant student, left, talks with homeless patient Kevin, right, inside the clinic’s mobile van at a Santa Monica restaurant parking in Santa Monica, California.Wenzel checks on Rene, who steps up into the van, where the medical team draws blood and checks his blood pressure and vital signs. He’s in decent shape, King and Reinisch determine.
Amanda, who is homeless, talks with Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine team at Reed Park in Santa Monica, California. Venice Family Clinic’s street medicine team members from left, Dr. Coley King, therapist Nick Wenzel and LVN Jacqueline Ramirez, talk with patient Rene, right, at the clinic’s mobile van where they treated Lopez at a gas station where he stays in Santa Monica, California.
He got to know about King’s medical outreach in Venice, “and we knew there needed to be a whole lot more people doing this work,” as well as a pipeline of Francescas to join the cause. “I wish we had more vans, and we just don’t right now, but it’s a start. It’s the beginning of our revolution,” says Behforouz. She tells me she’s working to link all mobile medical teams in the county to the same database, so that wherever a patient is contacted, caregivers will have access to medical and prescription histories.
King, who wrote the curriculum for trainees like Reinisch, tells me that he can often tell early on which students have the will, the patience and the temperament to become good at street medicine. He knew right away that Reinisch has a desire to do her part in the midst of a teeming humanitarian crisis.It’s a job that requires a terrific bedside manner, because a lot of unhoused people don’t trust that anyone is ever there to help.