LifeLineMobile Blog

With the need to expand accessibility and improve patient outcomes in much of the world, the healthcare infrastructure is rapidly changing its delivery model to put a renewed emphasis on mobile medical.

The crisis of COVID-19 has resulted in severe illnesses and countless deaths and has also brought many of the country’s healthcare systems to their knees. Hospitals and other healthcare institutions have been stressed to their breaking points. As an example, financial burdens experienced during the COVID-19 pandemic caused Fairmont Regional Medical Center, the only hospital in Marion County, West Virginia to close permanently. The 207 bed acute care facility had more than 500 employees, and area residents must now travel up to 40 minutes to reach the closest medical center.

More than three-quarters of a million people have died in the United States from a drug overdose since 1999.  Most of those from opioids.  Today, drug overdoses have been driven to unprecedented levels due to the economic shock, social isolation, and increased mental health distress brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the FDA the COVID-19 pandemic is causing unprecedented challenges to the U.S. blood supply. Donor centers and bloodmobiles are experiencing a dramatic reduction in donations due to the implementation of social distancing and the cancellation of blood drives.

Recently the Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Federal Office of Rural Health Policy along with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) provided a number of resources aimed at helping the public and healthcare community.

Recently the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a landmark Maternal Health Initiative.  The initiative incorporates a comprehensive HHS Action Plan to significantly reduce maternal deaths and disparities that put women at risk before, during and after pregnancy. In addition the U.S. Surgeon General issued a corresponding Call to Action to Improve Maternal Health, which puts forth the critical roles healthcare providers can do to improve maternal health, which should include mobile medical.

With more than 2,000 on the road in the U.S. and performing 6-½ million visits annually mobile health clinics serve an important role in the health care system, providing care to some of the most vulnerable populations. Between 2007 and 2017 Mobile Health Map monitored 811 participating clinics to identify:

For decades mobile clinics are a relatively untapped resource for global healthcare. In 2020 and beyond, the COVID-19 pandemic exhibits the important role of mobile health clinic programs. They provide critical access to healthcare professionals, especially for disenfranchised communities. They serve to fill the gap as a safety-net in what is often a deficient healthcare infrastructure, reaching social and economically underserved populations in urban and rural areas.

It’s important for the health and safety of your community to keep your mobile health clinic operating during the COVID-19 health crisis.  However, the confines of a mobile clinic can be perceived as a fearful environment for some health care providers and patients.  To address these concerns advancements have been made in developing several methods to protect medical staff and the public while inside a mobile clinic.

Mobile Health Clinics around the world are being used for COVID-19 testing, from Poland and Latvia to Argentina and the U.K.  Plus, all over the United States mobile clinics have been built specifically for testing.  Or in many cases clinics normally used for dentistry or childhood immunizations have reconfigured and/or directly redeployed to test individuals for the novel coronavirus.