Locals want to see 'COW' back in action

BY COLBY FRAZIER
DAILY SOUND STAFF WRITER

A 37-foot van nicknamed COW (Clinic on Wheels) has been missing in action for nearly two years and community members who donated their time and money to ensure the mobile clinic received funding want some answers.
The van, which was built for the sole purpose of traveling to local schools to aid some of the county’s estimated 16,000 uninsured children, was turned over to American Indian Health & Services Corp., a local clinic, to operate in May 2006.



But Rick Feldman, who donated money to help outfit the $190,000 van, said it hasn’t been seen for more than a year and he has had little contact with officials at American Indian Health Services until yesterday, when the health clinic’s administration discovered Feldman intended to file a lawsuit that would demand the van be used for its intended purpose.
Feldman said he planned to hold a news conference today to announce the lawsuit, but due his correspondence with clinic officials, he will be announcing a renewed partnership that he hopes will put the bus back on the road.
“My impression is that there were issues that were keeping them from doing what they pledged to do and they now see the wisdom in working with us to revitalize the program,” Feldman said. “I’m going to hold off on the lawsuit.”
A representative with American Indian Health & Services referred requests for comment to Feldman.
If the clinic doesn’t act quickly to get the van back in use, Feldman said he would still consider legal action.
“If that can be done in very short order we’re not going to sue anyone, but I’m not an easy sale,” he said. “It’s got to be real.”
Feldman, a co-owner of the Santa Barbara Eyeglass Factory, said there were at least two attempts by the clinic to sell the van last summer for far less than it was worth.
He said Deborah Pentland, a nurse for the Santa Barbara School Districts, spent years trying to make the bus become a reality and was notified by potential buyers that the clinic was attempting to sell the van. Pentland said in once instance, the clinic’s sale price was as low as $65,000.
The 15-year career nurse said what makes the van’s absence from school parking lots worse than the colossal amount of time she and others spent to make COW a reality, is the growing number of children who lack insurance and suffer as a result.
“I’ve been living and breathing this for five years,” she said. “We really need this. People really don’t realize how underserved our children are.”
Pentland said she is relieved a solution appears to be on the horizon and speculated that the mission of the van was lost over time as the administration at the clinic changed several times as did its board of directors over the past two years.
“They came to an understanding that it was their van and really we’re saying it’s a community van and we need to get it back out there serving the kids,” she said.
During its short tenure, Pentland said the van held seven clinics, at which about 50 children were signed up to receive state provided health care.
According to reports presented to the Board of Supervisors last summer, Santa Barbara County has the highest, or sometimes the second highest number of uninsured children per county in the state.
This statistic continues to light a fire under Feldman, who said the number is “devastating.”
“It’s catastrophic,” Feldman said. “That one of the wealthiest counties on earth ranks 58-of-58 [in California] in regards to children without health insurance.”
Pentland said the purpose of the van was and is simple: to get children, who often qualify for insurance but don’t get the paper work filled out, into the system.
And with the help of an on-site computer, it did just that.
She said uninsured children would receive a physical in one of the van’s two exam rooms, be treated for any ailments and registered right then for two-months of state funded health care. At the end of two months, Pentland said additional paperwork would have to be filled out.
Not only were children getting enrolled in healthcare plans that they would otherwise lack, Pentland said the clinic was reimbursed nearly $80 per every physical conducted and be eligible to receive additional federal funds at the end of each year.
She said the goal was for the program to pay for itself through various subsidies. But when Pentland went to the clinic a few months ago with a $10,000 grant to get the van running again, she said the clinic’s administration told her they needed a more significant source of funding.
Pentland said one of the first things that need to happen is for a board of directors to convene that consists of community members that will on a regular basis with the clinic. She said such a board once existed, but slowly dissolved after she went back to work full-time as a nurse.
Whether or not additional funding is needed to continue operation of the van is yet to be seen, but for the sake of the county’s children, both Pentland and Feldman hope a resolution is reached sooner than later.
“It got unfortunately messy and I’m not interested in messy,” Pentland said. “I’m interested in [the van] going to the schools.”