SALT LAKE CITY , Utah. — The Regence Foundation announced today it has awarded a $50,000 grant to Magna-based Utah Partners for Health to expand its mobile medical clinic. The mobile clinic travels around Salt Lake County and provides health care to patients who aren’t able to access Utah Partners for Health’s in-clinic services.

The Regence Foundation grant will help the organization conduct at least 50 mobile medical unit events and provide care for at least 3,750 patients in 2011. It will also help the organization expand the services offered through the mobile clinic to include dental and eye care.

"The mobile medical clinic is truly one-of-a-kind," said Kieren Porter, Regence Foundation board chair. "As far as we know, there is no other mobile medical clinic like it in Utah, and it provides a critical service to underserved communities that might otherwise go without the health care they need. The Regence Foundation applauds the creative and efficient way Utah Partners for Health is serving Salt Lake County."

Utah Partners for Health's mission is to provide access to primary health care services to uninsured, low-income individuals using an innovative model in partnership with the community. Since 2003, it has provided over $3.3 million in health care to over 28,000 low-income people. Because the organization works within for-profit health care clinics and through its mobile medical clinic, it doesn’t pay for a building, supplies, or staffing, and 95 percent of its funding goes directly to services.