LifeLineMobile Blog

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.

In the United States breast cancer is the most common type among women after skin cancer, and is second only to lung cancer in related deaths.  Thirteen percent of women nationwide will develop an invasive form of breast cancer in their lifetime.  However, breast cancer mortality rate has been declining over the past 30 years due to an increase in awareness for the need to have regular mammography screenings and the advancements in treatment.  According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), women at least 40 years old should get a mammogram annually, even if they are otherwise in good health, with other sources suggesting a maximum age of 50 years old.

If you only have 5 percent of the healthcare market in your service area, imagine if you edged up just 1 point to 6 percent.  That is 20 percent growth for your FQHC or hospital.  Consider a mid-sized hospital system with $350 million in revenues, that 20 percent growth is a significant $70 million.

A mobile health clinic provides innovative and flexible healthcare delivery to vulnerable, rural, urban and generally underserved populations. Though often misunderstood, and sometimes not fully utilized, mobile health units can provide continuity of care in a number of ways, including:

1. Expanding Market Presence 

The American Cancer Society recommends that women over 40 have an annual mammogram breast cancer screening.  ­To help serve the public, mobile breast cancer screening units have state of the art equipment and infrastructure with dedicated teams to provide cost-effective mammography screenings to women at their place of work and to those in rural, urban and other low-income communities. Mobile mammography screening help to lower the barriers to breast cancer screenings for medically underserved women and is a convenient incentive to those at work.  These units are fully equipped with current technology and specific imaging equipment that use a low-dose radiology for cost-effective screenings.