Ronald McDonald Care Mobile

of UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

Ronald McDonald House Charities of Pittsburgh and Morgantown partners with UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh to provide the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a 40-foot vehicle designed and built specifically for the delivery of pediatric health care. The state of the art vehicle brings vital medical services to underserved communities in the Greater Pittsburgh Region. Pediatricians, nurses, nurse practitioners and respiratory therapists from UPMC Children’s Hospital provide medical care to children who are unable to visit the doctor regularly. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile provides services to 1,000 patients per year. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile is supported in part by generous contributions listed on this page and others.

Services provided by the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile include:

  • wellness visits
  • immunizations
  • sports physicals
  • dental exams
  • asthma care
  • sick visits

Unique to the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile is the Distraction Therapy Program. This program alleviates the stress children experience when going to the doctor’s office. When children enter the exam rooms, they are transformed into a Pittsburgh Penguins themed igloo or under the sea adventure. The children then focus on as to what is going on around them rather than the reason they are there. Games have even been designed for these rooms during the medical visit, thus making it a better experience for both the parents and the children.

To ensure every child has access to health care services on the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, the program is breaking down another barrier some families face: language. When English is not a family’s first language, difficulty in conveying their child’s medical needs and understanding health forms often creates a hesitation in accessing essential health care for their children. The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile is addressing this issue by utilizing professional interpreters and producing multilingual informational materials to help parents better understand the services it provides. Having these resources allows parents to feel better informed, creating a more comfortable environment to access services from immunizations and wellness visits to sick visits and screenings.

Addressing Food Insecurity 
With support from the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile is also helping families who utilize the program address food insecurity. Through a screening program, families who screen positive for food insecurity are given a referral to the food bank, along with other resources.

Find out where and when the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile will be:
Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Schedule

Follow the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile on Facebook to see where it will be next.

For more information, please call 412-352-1059.

Ronald McDonald
Care Mobile
Funders

Aldi Giving
Andersen Corporate Foundation
Richard Donchian Foundation
G.C. Murphy Co. Foundation
Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank
Opportunity Fund

Pittsburgh Penguins Foundation
The Pittsburgh Foundation
Walmart Community Grants
Washington Financial Charitable Foundation