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Total Guam Foundation outlines island mobile clinic, continuity-of-care clinic in Tamuning
Summary
Former Senator Dennis Rodriguez told mayors the Total Guam Foundation operates a mobile clinic and a Tamuning clinic to provide screenings, immunizations and follow-up care; services rely on private donations, insurance billing and limited grant support rather than government subsidy.
Former Senator Dennis Rodriguez, founder of the Total Guam Foundation, told the Mayor’s Council of Guam on May 10 that the nonprofit operates a mobile clinic and a brick-and-mortar clinic in Tamuning to provide regular primary care and specialty services to residents across the island.
Rodriguez said the foundation’s mission is “to address the health disparities and promote health equity, by providing basic access to healthcare, education and other social services, to our residents, without any restrictions.” The foundation began as a volunteer mobile-clinic outreach in 2016 and expanded into a Tamuning clinic that Rodriguez said is open six days a week from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
The foundation described six programs to the council, led by its mobile “wellness on wheels” van and the Tamuning clinic, which Rodriguez said allows follow-up care after outreach events. Rodriguez listed services and providers participating regularly: family medicine and internal medicine, board-certified pediatric and psychiatric care, and two returning OB-GYNs who rotate back to Guam. The foundation also operates a cervical-cancer screening program funded initially through a University of Guam Guam Cancer Trust Fund grant and a patient-navigation/financial-assistance program that helps residents arrange off-island care when needed.
Rodriguez told mayors the mobile clinic maintains a regular schedule: weekly outreach at the Dededo farmers market on Saturdays from about 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., second- and fourth-Thursday outreaches at Cathedral Basilica aimed at unstably housed residents, and periodic Sunday stops in the Gilbreese area. He said the mobile van is a single exam-room vehicle and that the Tamuning clinic accepts insured and uninsured patients; the foundation seeks reimbursements from Medicaid and other payers when possible but does not receive a government operating subsidy.
On funding and partnerships Rodriguez said the mobile and clinic operations are supported by private donations, program income from billing insurers and occasional grants. He told mayors, in response to a question about capacity, that the foundation receives some grant support for specific programs (such as the cancer-screening grant) but “we don't get any Government of Guam funding for this. No subsidy. We've never had for our mobile clinic operations.”
Mayors and vice mayors pressed on capacity, telehealth and potential village visits; Rodriguez said the foundation offers telehealth when payers and patient needs permit and invited mayors to schedule village visits through his office. Council members did not take formal action; several said they would follow up to arrange outreach in their villages.
The council was given brochures and a schedule; Rodriguez said the foundation aims to expand continuity of care so screenings at village outreaches lead to ongoing treatment at the Tamuning clinic.
