‘I Love Who I Am Today’: OhioHealth Wellness on Wheels Helps Woman Rediscover Trust in Care
Key Takeaways:
- A Wellness on Wheels visit connected Tonya Hall with a care team that helped her begin rebuilding her health and life.
- Family medicine physician Dorvan Byler, DO, focused on Hall’s potential rather than her circumstances, helping her build trust in care and in herself.
- OhioHealth Wellness on Wheels brings primary care and other essential health services directly into communities, serving nearly 1,000 patients each year.
For Tonya Hall, the first step toward rebuilding her life began with a visit to an OhioHealth Wellness on Wheels mobile unit during her stay at the Van Buren Shelter. It was there she met family medicine physician Dorvan Byler, DO — a relationship she says changed her life.
"About three years ago, when I stepped into the Van Buren Shelter, I was a mess," Hall said. "I was homeless. I was into my addiction. I had so many health issues.”
Wellness on Wheels brings OhioHealth providers into neighborhoods and community locations where access to healthcare is limited, providing primary care and other services — including women’s health, prenatal and postpartum care and preventive screenings — while connecting patients with additional resources.
Like many people without consistent access to care, Hall said she expected Dr. Byler to see only her circumstances.
“When I met him, I had this idea that I'm going to step on this bus,” she said. “I'm just going to have him fix what I'm coming here for."
Instead, she found a physician and team who saw beyond her circumstances.
"The way Dr. Byler looked at me, I still have that picture in my memory," Hall said. "It kind of struck me and stayed with me. To this day, I have never missed an appointment. He changed my whole life."
That’s the same approach Dr. Byler brings to every patient: focusing on the person, not just the challenges in front of them.
"It is really easy to kind of put patients into buckets of the patterns we've seen in the past with patients who are in those places," he said. "If you do that, then you miss a lot."
After just a few visits, he recognized Hall's determination.
"It was pretty apparent after even just a couple times meeting Tonya that she has a thing in her that's ready to overcome," he said. "She's saying I fixed her, but really I just believed her, convinced her to trust herself and helped her through a couple things. Then she figured her life out."
When Hall left the shelter, her relationship with Dr. Byler didn’t end. He continued caring for her as she found stable housing and transportation, regained her health and built the life she has today.
"We worked it together because I didn't know that was my change. I didn't know that was the beginning of me and my new life," she said. "This is my lifelong doctor."
For Dr. Byler, seeing Hall's transformation is one of the most rewarding parts of caring for patients through Wellness on Wheels.
"She's one of the reasons that I do this job. Watching someone come out of a space where everything's kind of falling apart, and then you just help them a little bit. You just have to trust them a little, show them a little bit of care,” he said. “Now look at her. It's really rewarding."
Today, Hall says she has a renewed sense of purpose and a future she once couldn't imagine.
"You have changed my life," she told Dr. Byler. "I love who I am today. I love it."
For those facing barriers to healthcare, a visit to Wellness on Wheels can be the first step toward building a relationship with a healthcare team. Each year, the program serves nearly 1,000 patients across central and southeast Ohio, helping ensure that cost does not prevent them from getting the services they need. The mobile units operate much like traditional primary care and women's health offices and connect individuals with additional resources when needed.
To learn more about OhioHealth Wellness on Wheels, click here.
If you want to support mobile healthcare in your community, visit OhioHealth Community Outreach - OhioHealth Foundation.
