(Providence, RI) – On October 22, 2025, Women & Infants Hospital held a formal ribbon-cutting for the Community Mobile Health Clinic. The van is now on the road, serving community partners across Rhode Island to increase access to maternal health services.
The Community Mobile Health Clinic is a van outfitted to offer a variety of postpartum screenings and support, staffed by a dedicated Nurse Practitioner and Community Health Worker. The mobile unit will screen patients for postpartum depression and hypertension, provide contraceptive counseling and/or contraception as needed, and provide a variety of supportive services, such as mental health support and breastfeeding support. WIH anticipates it will provide high-quality care to postpartum patients where and when they need it.
“We know that structural barriers limit access to care and can have a negative impact on perinatal outcomes. The van allows us to accelerate progress towards improved perinatal health in Rhode Island with the simple act of removing transportation as a barrier to receiving postpartum care,” said Methodius Tuuli, MD, MPH, MBA, Chair and Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Women & Infants Hospital.
The mobile unit is an extension of our successful Postpartum Hypertension Equity Program at Women & Infants, which started in 2022. The program provides blood pressure cuffs and training to patients with a hypertension diagnosis before discharge from the hospital. They take their blood pressure in the comfort of their own homes and send readings daily to the Nurse Practitioner for review and management. This has significantly reduced patients returning to the Emergency Department with hypertension-related complications.
The Community Mobile Health Clinic program is funded by a $1 million grant from the CVS Health Foundation awarded to Women & Infants Hospital in 2024 as part of their commitment to women’s health.
About Women & Infants Hospital
Women & Infants Hospital of Rhode Island, a Care New England hospital, is one of the nation’s leading specialty hospitals for women and newborns. A major teaching affiliate of The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University for obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics, as well as a number of specialized programs in women’s medicine, Women & Infants is the ninth largest stand-alone obstetrical service in the country and the largest in New England with approximately 8,700 deliveries per year. Women & Infants is a Designated Baby-Friendly® USA hospital and was recently ranked by Newsweek as one of America's Best Maternity Hospitals in 2024. The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology ranked 11 in U.S. News & World Report’s 2019 Best Medical Schools specialty ranking.
Women & Infants has been designated as a Breast Imaging Center of Excellence by the American College of Radiography; a Center of Excellence in Minimally Invasive Gynecology; and a Neonatal Resource Services Center of Excellence. It is one of the largest and most prestigious research facilities in high-risk and normal obstetrics, gynecology, and newborn pediatrics in the nation, and is a member of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Maternal Fetal Medicine Units Network, and Pelvic Floors Disorders Network, as well as the National Cancer Institute’s Gynecologic Oncology Group.