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SAN JUAN — For 25 years, Operation Border Health Preparedness has provided Valley residents much needed free medical services from immunizations for all ages to dental services to vision exams with a mobile lab to make prescription glasses at location.
Operation Border Health Preparedness is an exercise to help the community get ready for disasters.
The annual event is made possible by local counties, city health departments, medical schools, human services organizations, Texas military forces, universities, Remote Area Medical (RAM) and other volunteer groups.
Kicking off its 25th anniversary at PSJA Early College High School Monday morning, Sulema Solis, director of Health Services at PSJA ISD, has worked in the program for more than two decades in different capacities and is currently the incident commander for PSJA ISD for the event.
The event at PSJA has about 400 volunteers.
The event offers:
>> Immunizations for all ages;
>> Medical exams;
>> Blood pressure checks;
>> Diabetes screenings;
>> Hearing and vision exams;
>> Sports physicals;
>> Dental Services from cleanings, fillings to extractions; and
>> Vision exams and mobile lab to make prescription glasses.
Solis said last year’s event served around 500 to 600 people a day and did not require any kind of identification to receive the free medical services.
“We don’t put a limit on the number that can come in,” she said. “We will see as many patients that walk through the door. Yes, we do close the door at 3 pm. But we stay as late as we need to to see all the patients.”
Some of the specific medical services offered range from providing prescriptions, mental health practitioners to a dental filling.
“The dentist evaluates and determines what’s their most critical need,” Solis said. “Then they’ll provide that service … sometimes we’ll do anywhere from 100 to 200 (a day) for dental and then also for vision anywhere from 100 to 200.”
RAM, a group from Tennessee, provides pop-up medical clinics around the United States with no cost to patients.
RAM is essential in providing free pop-up clinics for dental services, such as the ones mentioned and dental X-rays.
The non-profit organization also includes providing people with free eyeglass prescriptions and frames for on-site fabrication in a mobile vision lab.
Given a tour of the process, RAM volunteers first receive information on the prescription and selected frame and will look through their assortment of donated lenses on-site to see if they can be made.
If not, glasses with the correct prescription will be mailed to patients.
The donated lenses will be resized and reshaped by a group of four volunteers through various machines in the mobile vision site.
Asked how it feels to see the program continuing strong after being involved for over 20 years, Solis replied, “It feels very rewarding and very good. And it really helped us during the COVID pandemic. Practicing this event is what is preparing us for real life emergencies … We were one of the first districts to start inoculating and we were vaccinating about 3,000 patients a day here at PSJA.”
Eduardo Olivarez, Hidalgo County Health & Human Services chief administrative officer, also talked about how the annual event helped the county during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We used the models, the procedures, the methods we do during Operation border health. You set up clinics, we set up interventions, we set up systems. It was seamless … It prepared us and who knows what the future holds in public health. There’s a lot of other illnesses out there that we’re watching that hopefully they never come to the level that COVID did,” he said.
Olivarez said in his more than two decades being involved in the event, he has noticed that a lot of working class poor in the community come to the clinics due to a lack of insurance.
“You’ll see people here wearing nice outfits, suits and everything,” he said. “And they’re getting dental services or vision services or getting women’s healthcare services because they have no insurance. So this is a fantastic opportunity for all of our community.”
Olivarez also wanted to make note that the services do not require any type of identification.
“Medical complications don’t understand international citizenship, they don’t understand international boundaries,” he said. “If you need help with your vision, dental, or diabetes … there is nothing asked of you. There is no requirement of residency … There’s no police here. No one asking anybody about where you’re from … I know that the tensions are high in dealing with that but the reality is if you have a healthy individual and community, that’s a good thing.”
The event is located at PSJA Early College High School at 805 Ridge Road in San Juan. The program is in operation on Tuesday-Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and on Friday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.
