The Mount Sinai South Nassau Vaxmobile, a large vehicle equipped with medical equipment and professional healthcare workers, continued its mission of preventative health services through a recent visit to the Freeport Memorial Library. Residents were able to attain various healthcare information, screenings, and vaccinations from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Thursday, April 16.
Amongst the several the licensed or registered nurses available, Dr. Aaron Glatt, the chair of Mount Sinai South Nassau’s Department of Medicine, visited the library. Free vaccinations for shingles, pneumonia, the flu and Covid-19 were offered to residents with qualifying insurance coverage.
The Vaxmobile has been operating since March 2021, visiting community centers, senior centers, churches, schools, libraries and other locations in Nassau County communities in addition to Freeport, like Elmont, Uniondale, Hempstead and Long Beach.
Since it first launched, Mount Sinai South Nassau has been able to serve about 40,000 people with the Vaxmobile across the various locations at almost no cost to residents.
“It’s free health screenings and no cost vaccines or no cost blood tests, which means no cost out of pocket, but their insurance may be charged depending on what they have,” said Abigail Fromm, Mount Sinai’s director of Community Education, a registered nurse and one of the Vaxmobile’s maintainers. “For anyone who is uninsured or under insured, we also take them. We do not turn them away.”
Fromm said that utilizing the services of the Vaxmobile are important to combat the spread of diseases and to mitigate the effects of various conditions through early detection. She added that continuing to go out to communities for screenings and services helps residents become more reliably educated on medical matters.
“The more we go out there, the more they trust us,” Fromm said. “We are part of a healthcare system, so we’re not like ‘Doctor Google’ or information to get from the internet, which are not always true. …Reaching out to them to promote health education actually helps fill in the gap of trust and skepticism.”
For more information on the Vaxmobile, please visit Mount Sinai South Nassau’s website or their Facebook page.
