Bernalillo County plans to bring more health care services to local schools with mobile units

Bernalillo County is trying to make health care more accessible to local students with a pair of school-based mobile health centers scheduled to roll out in September. A third is expected to be added in the coming years.

At just under 30 feet long and 15 feet across, the mobile medical units are essentially large RVs, but inside will be an Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)-compliant office area and medical room.

The units will visit four Albuquerque Public Schools, each in a different quadrant, as well as two charter schools and two community centers, said Amber Salazar, operations manager for the county’s Behavioral Health Initiative. The schools to be visited will be announced when the location selection is finalized, Salazar said.

”Healthy students make better learners,” said incoming APS Superintendent Gabriella Blakey. “School-based health centers are one way for students to access health care. SBHCs provide universal access to affordable, high-quality health care in schools. They can reduce inequities and promote better health outcomes for students.”

The district wants to provide more primary and behavioral health care for students, Blakey said. There are already 11 brick-and-mortar school-based health centers in APS schools, and two more are expected to open in the 2024-2025 school year at New Futures and West Mesa High School. But the mobile centers will be able to serve every quadrant in the district.

What services will the mobile health centers offer?

A traditional school nurse’s office can’t prescribe medication, bill Medicaid or Medicare for services or offer behavioral health services, county Commissioner Steven Michael Quezada said, but the providers in the mobile health centers will be able to do all of those things.

The mobile health units will offer telehealth and in-person primary care, preventative services and behavioral health services.

“Hopefully, we can curb some of these kids that use drugs to cope and deal, because we have such a huge fentanyl and prescription drug crisis here in New Mexico,” Quezada said.

The units will have two teams. Each will include a medical assistant, a behavioral health therapist, and community support workers and technicians, Salazar said. Other medical staff will not be at the units but should be available for consultation, including a medical doctor and a psychiatric director.

The county is negotiating with a health service provider and will not release the name of the provider until the agreement is finalized in July, according to Salazar.

What will it cost?

The mobile units each came with a $400,000 price tag, paid for with the county’s behavioral health gross receipts tax revenue. A third unit is being purchased with federal dollars — a Health Resources and Services Administration grant earmarked by U.S. Rep. Melanie Stansbury — and should arrive in two years.

The county has allocated $1.5 million, or $750,000 per unit, to pay for medical services over the first year of operation.

“As we move forward, and we start looking at Medicaid reimbursements, or private insurance reimbursements, then that will also impact the funding. The idea is in the long run that it’ll be self-sustaining,” Salazar said.

One reason Quezada originally ran for the county commission was because he wanted more health care services for local schoolchildren. Quezada is in his last year as a commissioner. He has reached the term limit as county commissioner, so cannot run for reelection in the position.

“Realistically, that’s not the responsibility of public education. That is the responsibility of the community to provide those wraparound services,” Quezada said. “And so when I first joined, my idea was, ‘Let’s put a school-based health center starting in every elementary school, so we provide those services at an early age.’”

But building permanent health centers proved too complex logistically. For one thing, community members can’t necessarily come into a school and use the health services, for safety reasons, Quezada said. But they can use a mobile center parked in a school parking lot.

Students will be able to use the mobile health centers during school hours, while family members, school staff and community members will be able to use them outside of school hours, Salazar said.

Quezada’s long-term hope is to have mobile health centers serve schools, community centers, senior centers and housing programs like the Tiny Home Village.

“It’s got a lot of potential — we just need more than just three. I think we’re going to need a fleet,” Quezada said.