Mobile Health Unit

Health care is a “right” but access to health care services is a necessity. The Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit was launched as a nonprofit 501(c)3 in 2019 to provide health, dental, and education outreach to help conquer social and cultural barriers by improving access to health care services to low-income and hard-to-reach residents. The Mobile Health Unit’s mission is to improve the health of rural South Carolina and advance outreach through preventive and diagnostic care supported by health information technologies to under-served populations and communities in our service area.

Impact

The Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit was created to help detect previously undiagnosed conditions, strengthen care coordination and continuity, improve disease management, and reduce costly emergency department (ED) visits and avoidable inpatient hospitalizations.

Since launching right before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Mobile Health Unit has pivoted to provide emergency support to local communities through testing, vaccines, health education, and food distribution.

The Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit is a Mathews Specialty Vehicles Coach Series 4000-40-102 with three rooms and a wheelchair lift. It features one exam room for primary care with telemedicine support in the rear, one dental operatory with teledentistry support in the front, and a center area computer for coordination of care, referrals, and registration. It also includes audio/visual equipment on the external area of the unit as well as onboard cellular data services from Verizon.

Our Services

While still offering COVID-19 vaccine clinics, the Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit is now able to focus again on its core service offerings: screenings, vaccinations, health checkups, and other women services; dental care (including oral screenings, cleanings, and dental procedures); and health education. All of our dental and medical services are delivered using a collaborative health care team-based approach.

Dental (Coming Soon)

Our Dental Unit provides quality clinical dental in a professional and efficient manner to those patients that are eligible for our dental services, including:

Basic preventive and restorative dental services
Disease prevention services
Diagnosis and treatment of oral health problems
Hypertension screening
Dental education

Medical

Our Medical Unit provides many preventative services, including:

Chronic Care Management
Diabetes, Hypertension, Asthma, Hypothyroidism, Anemia
Women's Health
Pap Smears, Referrals for Mammograms, Sexually Transmitted Disease (STDs)
Mental Health Navigation
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)
Routine Lab Tests

Meet the Mobile Advisory Council

FAQs

Yes, we are currently accepting Medicaid for Mobile Health Unit services.
We are always looking for volunteers with a variety of experience and skill sets. Please check out our volunteer listings and reach out if you are interested in volunteering with us!

SERVICE LOCATIONs

Please call 833-625-4584 (833-MBL-HLTH) to schedule an appointment in your county or for additional information.

Charleston

North Charleston

Santee

View Dates/Times

The Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit DOES NOT prescribe “controlled substances” for chronic pain (Percocet, etc.), sleep (Ambien, etc.), anxiety (Valium, etc.), ADD/ADHD (Adderall, etc.). Medication refills require 24-48 hours and PAP refills may require 1-2 weeks.

Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter

The Palmetto Palace Mobile Health Unit is in Honor of Representative Gilda Cobb-Hunter. Cobb-Hunter is the former representative for South Carolina's 66th district. Following redistricting and the 2022 general election, Cobb-Hunter now represents South Carolina House District 95 and David L. O'Neal represents South Carolina's 66th district.

Gilda Cobb-Hunter is a woman of many firsts. She was the first African American woman in Orangeburg County ever elected to statewide office, when on January 28, 1992 she was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives, where she currently serves. She became the first freshman ever appointed to and is now a ranking member and 1st Vice Chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and is a member of the Joint Bond Review Committee. Cobb-Hunter has continued her road of firsts by becoming the first person of color, male or female, to ever lead a legislative caucus, when in 1997 she was elected House Minority Leader. Rep Cobb-Hunter is currently the longest serving Representative in the House and is ranked number 1 out of 124 members. She is widely respected on both sides of the aisle and has been dubbed "the conscience of the House."

Cobb-Hunter's longstanding commitment to public service is reflected in her active participation on numerous boards and commissions. A few of those included: Community Development Advisory Committee for the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond; Center for Women Policy Studies; Palmetto Trails; Planned Parenthood of South Carolina; South Carolina Fair Share; South Carolina Low Income Housing Coalition; South Carolina SAFEKIDS and South Carolina Progressive Network.

In her capacity as Vice-Chair of the African American History Monument Commission Cobb-Hunter led the historic effort to build at the time, the first monument to African Americans on the ground of any state capitol. She represents South Carolina as the National Committeewoman to the Democratic National Committee, where she also served as a member of the DNC's Executive Committee and as Chair of the DNC's Southern Regional Caucus, the first woman of color ever elected to that position. Rep. Cobb-Hunter currently serves as the President of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. During her legislative career, she has been honored for her legislative leadership and recognized as legislator of the year by numerous organizations.

Cobb-Hunter is the Chief Executive Officer of CASA/Family Systems, a family violence agency serving Orangeburg, Bamberg and Calhoun counties. She has worked on the national, regional and state levels on a variety of progressive issues aimed at making communities a better place for working families to live.

Ms. Cobb-Hunter is a native of Gifford, Florida, holds a B.S. degree in Afro-American History from Florida A&M University, an M.A. degree in American History from Florida State University and is a Licensed Master Social Worker. She has received an honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from both the Medical University of South Carolina and the College of Charleston and in 2009 received the highly coveted David Wilkins Legislative Leadership Award from the Riley Institute at Furman University.

She is married to Dr. Terry K. Hunter, Executive Director of Fine Arts Cultural Enrichment Teaching Studios (FACETS) and they reside in Orangeburg.