Veterans Mobile Medical Unit serves Edgewater Vets for the first time
EDGEWATER – The Mobile Medical Unit from Chicago-area Hines VA Hospital came to Creekside Lodge on March 3 to provide its services to Edgewater veterans for the first time.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “The Edward Hines Jr. Hospital in Hines, IL, honors veterans with quality healthcare, part of the largest integrated healthcare system in the U.S.
The Veterans Mobile Medical Unit is the latest tool Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital is using to reach out to area veterans to enroll them and provide them with top quality VA healthcare. Hines is deploying the Veterans MMU on a regular basis to areas in the Chicago suburbs and beyond where many veterans are known to reside.”
Carl Menconi, who served in the US Army and is the commander of the Edgewater Veterans’ Group, said the Hines MMU was invited to Creekside Lodge as a focal point of the Veterans’ March meeting and to offer its services to Edgewater’s vets.
Dave Mitchell exits the Mobile Medical Unit, which bears colorful military images on the exterior. The MMU stopped by Edgewater from the Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, IL. (Glynn Wade/Sun Day Photo)
The Mobile Unit, which is decorated on the outside with colorful images of armed forces personnel and military slogans, was stationed in the Creekside Lodge parking lot for several hours. It arrived with three personnel aboard: the driver/operator, who is also a veteran pilot, plus a registered nurse and a social worker. A licensed practicing nurse sometimes accompanies the MMU team.
In order to receive medical services, participants were required to be a member of the Edgewater Veterans’ Group and be registered in advance. More than 30 men signed up and were served.
Jacob Zimmerman, superintendent of the Veterans Assistance Commission of Kane County, helped escort participating Edgewater vets, in groups of three, from the Lodge to the Mobile Unit outside to take their turns being checked out. Also present to assist was Veterans Services Officer John Fanning of the Elgin National Guard Armory.
The approximate size and dimensions of a recreational mobile home, the vehicle has a cheerful interior, encompassing two exam rooms and a waiting area. Veterans could enter the MMU either by a three-step removable staircase or a hydraulic wheelchair lift.
The mobile unit contains a computer that can access registered veterans’ records to determine their status in the system and any available facts about their health and medical needs. Those currently not in the system can be added.
Typical MMU services include blood pressure screenings and dispensing flu or shingles shots and other vaccinations. The mobile unit’s social worker offers mental health screenings and can advise veterans on how to obtain health-care services beyond what the mobile unit can offer on the spot.
“It’s all part of our contract with you: you took care of us; now we’ll take care of you … for life,” the MMU operator told the Edgewater veterans.
The Edgewater Veterans Group, which was founded by Menconi six years ago with a handful of members, now numbers more than 100. In addition to the camaraderie the vets enjoy at their gatherings, they also invite informative speakers, elected officials, and personnel from various veterans groups to address their meetings.
Edgewater’s veterans also help U.S. service people in need through such efforts as clothing drives and donations. They support Operation Wounded Warriors and other beneficial programs.
Health may have been the emphasis of the evening on March 3, but Edgewater’s veterans also enjoyed an appealing array of donuts and paczki donated by Dave Rood of Elgin’s Country Donuts, proving that the familiar song was right: “A spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down!”
For more information on the MMU, contact Cris Mabrito 708-202-8387 x 20011 or cris.mabrito@va.gov.
