LifeLineMobile Blog

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.

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.