Transportation resource fair helps Saban Community Clinic patients access health care
By Joey Waldinger
Every year, millions of people have trouble reaching health care appointments because of insufficient transportation options, a trend that worsens health outcomes and drives up health care costs.
To counter this trend, the Lewis Center hosted a resource fair in partnership with the Saban Community Clinic that kept patients and community members informed of all available services and discounts. Held at the clinic’s Melrose Family Health Center, transportation and social service providers helped SCC patients secure reliable transportation and other public benefits.
“The Saban Community Clinic is a great partner that wants to help support the broader needs of their patients and community. Our goal was to try and provide as much support to people as efficiently as possible at a space that is known and trusted to them,” deputy director Madeline Brozen said.
Representatives from Metro’s Low-Income Fare is Easy (LIFE) program, ACCESS services, LADOT DASH, the City of Los Angeles Community Investment for Families Department, and car sharing service BlueLA set up booths to connect patients to their services. They were joined by the Los Angeles Public Library and Department of Water and Power officials who helped attendees enroll in their programs and learn about community programming.
The resource fair builds off an award-winning capstone project by Nataly Rios Guttierez, MURP ’22, who explored the transportation challenges faced by patients at SCC, which mostly provides care for uninsured and underinsured Latino residents across Los Angeles County.
In her report, which received the Neville A. Parker Award from the Council of University Transportation Centers, Guttierez recommended holding regular resource fairs to increase patients’ transit options, in addition to providing alternative supports like taxi vouchers and bus passes and providing tools that patients can use to contact health care providers when they are running late.
Jackie Provost, SCC’s chief strategy officer, was encouraged to see many transportation providers coming together to support their patients’ needs better. She noted that finding transportation supports was one of many ongoing initiatives at the clinic to make it easier for patients to get the care they need.
