SAN DIEGO -- It's 3-year old Christina Corona's turn for a pediatric checkup, in a mobile home parked outside her nursery school.
She and her mother step inside to find a mini-clinic, complete with scales, blood pressure cuffs, and medicines to treat minor problems.
Corona's mother Vanessa is happy to make the time for her daughter's check-up. "I like it because they're the same as the doctor," she said.
"They take the temperature, the weight, the height, and they check the pressure and they give you medication if they need it. Stuff like that," Corona added.
The care is free to the Coronas and to other South Bay families who have no medical coverage.
"We want to find these children and get them screened," explained G. Daniel Ordorica with the San Ysidro Health Center.
The center provides the two mobile clinics through its Healthy Steps Project, which is funded by the First 5 Commission of San Diego. The money comes from taxes on the sale of tobacco products.
Inside the Healthy Steps mobile, the child is screened for medical and dental problems. Psychologists test children to make sure they're reaching their "growth milestones" in motor skills, speech, and learning.
The San Ysidro Health Center sends the Healthy Steps mobiles to schools and shopping centers from San Ysidro to National City, in hopes of finding the children, aged zero to five, who need this care the most.
"You want to make sure that during that time they receive all of the care and services that they need," Ordorica said.
And it's important to get that care in early, "so that in later life they can become successful adults," he added.
That includes children who aren't even born yet. The clinic provides free prenatal check-ups to mothers such as Nancy Macias, who is eight-months pregnant with her second child.
"I want to know what's going on during the whole pregnancy because anything can happen during a pregnancy you know," Macias said.
But without the clinic and Healthy Steps, Macias wouldn't be able to make sure her baby is healthy.
"It's hard to get medical attention or get any type of attention if you don't coverage or insurance," she explained.
Once the screening is complete, the patient receives either a clean bill of health, or a referral to the San Ysidro Health Center.
Corona will need to go to the clinic for dental x-rays to determine whether she has cavities.
Since she is in-between insurance coverage, Corona's mother can't afford to pay for x-rays. But Healthy Steps takes care of that, too, by offering vouchers for dental exams, medical care, immunizations, and medicine at the clinic.
The clinic also helps families apply for health coverage, and offers a sliding-pay scale for low-income families.
"We try to eliminate any barriers the family might have in taking their child to a clinic and receiving the services they need," Ordorica said.
In that way, Health Steps is also eliminating the barriers that could keep these children from succeeding in life.
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