Street medicine is expanding in New Jersey. RWJBarnabas Health has launched such a program at Trinitas Regional Medical Center to bring medical care to the homeless in Elizabeth.
Edward Egan is an emergency room doctor at Trinitas. He is running the program. He said most things that can be done in the emergency room or the primary care clinic can be done with boots on the ground.
“We have a mobile van but that’s really just to transport us so that we can walk in the community and be part of the community,” he said. “We can do EKGs, ultrasounds, wound care, dispensing medications. We can get people prescription glasses, we can do those exams directly on the street and then bring them glasses within two to three weeks.”
Egan was trained in street medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center — the setting for the TV show The Pitt.
He is running the program and said folks are not always receptive to him and his crew right away as they arrive in their mobile unit.
“I think there is definitely suspicion early on if we’re not already out in the community, and so people are like, who are you, why are you in my place, why are you in my house, their house being the streets,” said Egan.
He said he starts by offering people water and socks, but then asks them about other problems he might help with, such as addiction or mental illness.
He said this is all a case of — back to the future.
“It’s a very innovative approach, even though this is really just going back to our roots as physicians, going to people, and so it’s just another way of what we describe as house calls for the homeless,” he said.
This program is one of several in New Jersey designed to serve the state’s homeless population, which according to state data has hit a 10-year high of 14,000.