Newsweek Highlights the ROI of the Family Van

Before becoming the president of Echoing Green, Cheryl Dorsey was an Echoing Green Fellow and co-founder of the Family Van.

The Family Van is a community-based mobile health unit that provides basic health care and outreach services to at-risk residents of inner-city Boston neighborhoods. Communities such as Roxbury in Boston, Massachusetts have one of the highest rankings in health problems. For the past 18-years the Family Van has met the needs of Roxbury for a low cost. According to a recent article in Newsweek, “In Massachusetts…spending on health care has increased by 52 percent since the state enacted its own major health reform in 2006.” 

With a budget of half a million dollars, the Family was able to save the Massachusetts health-care system $20 million dollars. Even more impressive is their return on investment. For every dollar the Family Van spends on operations and overhead costs, “thirty-six dollars in avoided ER visits, in prevention of diseases, in management of chronic illnesses that can spiral out of control—has been saved.”

According to the article, “there are now more than 2,000 mobile health clinics across the country” trying to apply similar models of quality health care at affordable costs.  The Family Van is indeed a little van with a big impact.