Street Medicine can be thought of as an old-fashioned house call where the roof over someone’s head might be a bridge, a tarp, a tent, the canopy of trees, or the open sky. There are no refrigerators to store medications. No running water to keep wounds clean or attend to personal hygiene needs. No easy access to transportation, making trips to clinics and pharmacies difficult or impossible.
Due to the austere conditions and realities of street life, street medicine efforts cannot provide comprehensive care to our unsheltered friends; rather, teams aim to build meaningful relationships by caring for acute needs of patients where they live and coordinating more robust care in the community for issues outside the scope of a street medicine practice.
Under the supervision of Medical Director Dr. Hans Bruntmyer, the Street Medicine team spends the majority of their time walking the streets and remote areas of San Antonio and Bexar County equipped with backpacks filled with basic medical supplies, water, socks, and hygiene kits
In addition to predetermined rounds, the team also responds to calls from local outreach workers and law enforcement.
The team does its best to accommodate the environment and effectively care for whatever they might encounter. The team can handle basic primary care issues such as wounds, fractures, sprains, colds, back pain, neck pain, etc. Screenings for blood pressure and blood sugar are also available.
We treat unsheltered individuals.