Meeting Patients Where They Are: Mobile Medicine In Rural NC

(NC Health News, Will Atwater) —  Rural residents often face significant barriers to accessing health care. Power outages, challenging travel and extreme weather events — such as hurricanes, heat waves and floods — only worsen the challenges posed by limited access to clinics and medical specialists.

This scenario recently played out in western North Carolina, where Hurricane Helene left many rural health care facilities inoperable. In response, the state deployed some mobile medical units to deliver care directly to affected communities.

But ahead of future disasters, more help may be on the way.

Mission Mobile Medical Group, based in Greensboro, announced in February that it was awarded up to $26 million in federal dollars “to develop the next-generation mobile clinic under the Platform Accelerating Rural Access to Distributed and Integrated Medical Care (PARADIGM) program,” according to a news release.

The mobile health care company will use the funding to design and build mobile “medical suites” — self-contained clinical units tailored for rural health systems. The goal: deliver hospital-level care and advanced diagnostics to communities across the country, according to the release.

“Only 12 percent of physicians practice in rural communities,” said Travis LeFever, chief executive officer of Mission Mobile Group. “With such limited access to medical care and emergency services, rural families — especially children — face barriers to care that should make us all question our priorities, political policies, and our public and personal principles.”

Mobile clinics could help eliminate the need for long-distance travel, particularly for residents of remote areas where building a permanent facility isn’t feasible. They also offer vital access for hard-to-reach populations, such as migrant workers or fishing communities.

The $26 million initiative is funded through the Biden-era Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). Although the Trump administration has canceled or frozen billions of dollars in other federal programs, the funding awarded to Mission Mobile has not, so far, been affected, according to LeFever.

Delivering assistance

While mobile clinics aren’t new, they’re becoming an increasingly vital part of the health care system — especially in rural “health care deserts” and in the wake of natural disasters, when traditional brick-and-mortar facilities may be inaccessible.

But even in calmer times, staffing rural clinics can pose a major challenge.

“In rural settings, typically, you don’t have as many providers [and] specialist positions,” said Lyn Jenkins, the executive director of the Community Care Clinic of Dare in Nags Head on North Carolina’s Outer Banks. “Three of the counties in eastern North Carolina don’t even have a practicing dentist.”