LifeLineMobile Blog

On October 18, 2022, the MOBILE Health Care Act was signed into law. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation Maximizing Outcomes through Better Investments in Lifesaving Equipment for MOBILE Health Care Act will broaden the ability to provide much needed healthcare services to rural and urban communities. The legislation, which takes effect on January 1, 2024, will allow health centers to use federal funds in establishing mobile healthcarefor their communities to increase access to medical services for underserved populations.

Regardless of the pandemic there has always been an urgent need for adaptable healthcare interventions for the underserved. Interventions that improve health outcomes and address the inequality for those on the fringes of society. The topic of health equity always comes around to: “Meet people where they are”. This refers to bringing accessible healthcare to people where they live and work, and most particularly to the urban and rural poor. However, regardless of this general consensus, much of the medical community has yet to embrace the most useful instrumentality of meeting people where they are with Mobile Medical Clinics.

The learning and development requirements in healthcare are considerably different than other businesses. Training to care for the human body is challenging for talent development in healthcare. And trainees are extremely segmented with differing needs, ranging from: 

The burden of mental, behavioral, and substance use disorders on disenfranchised people has exceeded the capacity of today’s healthcare systems, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. As many as 75 percent of people with serious mental illness in low income regions, such as rural and urban settings, cannot easily access basic treatment services. However, mobile clinics have successfully proven their usefulness in providing treatment for depression and other behavioral health issues, substance abuse, traumatic stress disorder, and even alcohol-use disorders. According to the National Library of Medicine, Mobile medical clinics represent an untapped resource for our healthcare system.

With faltering economic recovery, many industries are scrambling to deal with continued supply shortages, increasing commodity prices, and higher wages triggered by labor shortages. In 2021 the producer price index (PPI) rose 10% in the industrialized world. The PPI measures the postproduction prices of goods and is a barometer of the pressures on manufacturing. The last time there was this level of increase in PPI was in the first half of 2008.

Mobile Healthcare Simulation units are outreach education vehicles that have the ability to provide interprofessional simulation-based healthcare education to professionals in response to the need for interactive and high-tech training resources in urban, suburban, and rural areas. They are used to educate, train and test first responders, ER nurses, physicians and other healthcare professionals in mastering cognitive, technical, and behavioral skill sets prior to working in real world scenarios. Mobile sim labs are used to train individuals and teams in realistic clinical challenges through the use of task trainers, mannequins, virtual reality, standardized patients, in-situ approaches, and other hybrid forms. Medical simulation is sometimes referred to as nursing, healthcare, patient, clinical, or surgical simulation.

Urgent care clinics have seen a record number of patients since 2020, and the high volumes don’t seem to be going anywhere. This coupled with changes in the population and their healthcare needs, a growing shortage of physicians and other healthcare professionals, and hospitals closing in rural areas all demonstrate an increasing demand for mobile health clinics. The awareness of these changes has driven many healthcare organizations to pursue mobile clinics as a major part of their services portfolio.

Mobile health care serves a wide section of the population providing dental care, blood donations, primary and preventive medical care, along with mobile mammography and general cancer screenings.  We all know cancer screenings are important for the early detection of disease, better health outcomes, and saving more lives.  Many organizations work with the CDC through their national programs to extend these services to millions of people.

Custommade medical clinics use onboard technologiesthat combine to allow medical access to a broader population. According to the World Health Organization the demand for these vehicles is continuously rising due to their numerous benefits and their ability to fulfill the needs of an increasing population.  Studies have reported a recent shortfall of 90,000 physicians and untold number of nurses in the U.S.,while there is ananticipated increase in new patients of 28 million by 2050.  Taking this into account, clinical workflows must improve, and medical institutions and providers must adapt to his changing environment.

What comes to mind most when we think about occupational health is the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) which covers all industries. OSHA is a household name for most anyone associated with industrial work environments. And there is the lesser known Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) which of course safeguards mining, and most often coal mining. Each of these organizations play a vital role in the health and safety of America’s workforce.  However, we don't always associate mobile clinics with bringing occupational health to the workplace.