Medical & Dental Express

Although we have been in business for over 30 years, a sad but true reality, is that many people in need of our services still do not know that an affordable option to receiving healthcare services exists in their community. As a result, many in our target population go without needed healthcare services because of a lack of awareness and barriers to accessing care resulting in unnecessary worsening of medical and dental conditions and inappropriate utilization of high cost emergency rooms. Franklin recognizes that eliminating disparities in health will require enhanced efforts and new methods at preventing disease, promoting health and delivering appropriate care.

Accordingly, the focus of the mobile van is to resolve the barrier and access problems and thus lower health disparities by bringing basic primary medical and dental care services directly to the patient – rather than the traditional model of waiting for patients to come to you – thereby increasing the patient’s receipt of preventative healthcare services which will decrease chronic disease onset and create a healthier population.

Our medical and dental van will travel to various schools, healthcare, and social service agencies. Although the program primarily serves children during the school year, we will also serve adults during the summer and on school holidays.

Our goal is to provide dental services to people who otherwise do not have access to care. The dental services we offer are similar to those available at a private dental office. First, we will identify those patients who need dental services the most and who do not have access to care. We will gather all necessary documentation including parental consent forms for under-aged children and identify an adequate site to serve them.

How Does It Work?

Arranging for our dental van to visit your site is fairly simple. Here are the steps we will take:

1. Franklin staff will determine the best days for services.
2. Our staff will set a pre-clinic site visit with the designated agency. At this visit we will provide all the documents and instructions needed for clinical services, identify a contact person at the agency, and determine the best location to park the dental van.
3. Franklin staff will screen clients for their dental needs, secure necessary consent forms from the parent or guardian for all patients under the age of 19, and schedule patients using the appointment schedule provided to you by our staff. No patients can be treated without a signed consent form.
4. We will check with the site’s contact person a day or two before clinic services to handle last-minute details or changes.
5. Our van will park at the specified location either the evening before or the morning of clinic services. We provide clinic services between 8:30 am and 2:00 pm. Patients with severe decay will need more than one appointment. The last hours of the day will be reserved for follow-up care and emergency treatment. The last appointment is scheduled no later the 2:00 p.m.
6. The agency is responsible for checking patients in using the appointment schedule. In the case of patient over-flow, we will need designated persons from the agency to assist in moving patients between the waiting area and our van.