Denver's Mobile Health Center Brings COVID Testing To Underserved Areas

Denver Health is launching a new tool to help bring COVID-19 testing to underserved communities.

The Mobile Health Center puts COVID testing on wheels, making resources more accessible to Denver residents in Lowry.

"We're so excited," Nurse Practitioner Ashley Shurley told CBS4. "This summer, Denver Health Foundation applied for grant through the Anschutz Foundation which laid the groundwork to support the cost, as well as staffing and maintenance and fueling for three years."

As cases continue to rise at an alarming rate in Colorado, tests are currently in high demand. The Mobile Health Center aims to serve neighborhoods that don't have equal access to testing.

"Focusing on those neighborhoods that have higher case rates but lower testing rates, so they're not getting the testing access that they need," said Shurley. "This is a neighborhood and area where a lot of our refugee populations lives. It's hugely important. I mean people experience transportations barriers, language barriers, having to take time off work so a mobile health center is a proven way to reduce those barriers."

According to Shurley, the Mobile Health Center has a refrigerator for lab specimens and vaccines, a wheelchair lift, and an exam table to lowers to the ground.

After helping out residents in the Lowry neighborhood, the Mobile Health Center will be on the move again.

Photo: Getty Images