Mobile health care is a transformative approach to bridging health care gaps, especially in underserved areas. Essential hospitals deploy customized motor vehicles throughout their communities to deliver a wide variety of health services, each tailored to the communities’ needs. Whether bringing care units directly to patient homes or setting up units in central community locations, the common thread is making care as accessible as possible, often at low or no cost.
Mobile health care also has proven financial benefits for hospitals. The model promotes improved medication adherence and decreases adverse health events, cutting costly utilization of emergency and inpatient services. The Mobile Health Map reports that for every $1 spent on mobile health, $12 is saved. While the initial investment can be significant, the start-up costs of mobile health are still just half of costs for fixed sites.
How Mobile Health Units Revolutionize Community Care
The Lowenstein Foundation recently partnered with Essential Hospitals Institute to engage a select cohort of members in a learning collaborative to fund and enhance their existing mobile health care programs. Before selecting grantees, Institute staff interviewed mobile health program staff across member hospitals to gain insight into general operations, facilitators and barriers to implementation, and key recommendations for a strong mobile health program.
Structure of Services
These programs encompass a wide range of services, including cancer, diabetes, and heart disease screenings; vaccinations; and general primary care. Some mobile units are geared toward specialty care, such as Boston Medical Center’s Curbside Care, which focuses on improving maternal health outcomes,. Similarly, University Medical Center El Paso’s Mobile Stroke Unit is equipped to treat strokes right at a patient’s door.
Many programs screen patients for social needs. For instance, the Mobile Health Unit at Hennepin Healthcare, in Minneapolis, features a social worker who directs patients to necessary resources, such as food pantries, housing resources, or referrals to other providers. Mobile units often are staffed by an advanced practice registered nurse, physician assistant, or physician supported by a registered nurse to deliver comprehensive, high-quality care.
Best Practices for Thriving Mobile Health Programs
Growing and sustaining mobile health programs requires extensive planning and strategic partnerships. These programs share numerous struggles, primarily financing. Program managers also must consider mobile health programs’ unique needs that don’t arise in fixed sites, such as vehicle maintenance professionals.
Due to their cost, mobile health programs often require a complex mix of funding streams to remain afloat, including internal health system operating funds, private philanthropy grants, and/or public funding from city or state tax dollars. Balancing and securing these diverse funding sources requires enormous effort.
Staffing is another common struggle. Recruiting health care professionals for mobile health is different than hiring for a fixed-site environment, as community-based work demands special skills and a passion for serving patients in nontraditional settings. Building trust with community members is the key to a successful mobile health program, and sustained success requires genuine, long-term relationships with the community. By actively engaging with residents and adapting to their evolving needs, mobile health program leaders can build credibility and ensure meaningful, lasting impact. Without this trust, all other initiatives will fall short.
Partnerships
Despite these challenges, essential hospitals find innovative and impactful ways to ensure their mobile health programs thrive. Whether through cross-departmental collaboration to meet policies and compliance standards, engaging with the C-suite to secure funding for the program, or leveraging partnerships with community- and faith-based organizations, these hospitals do what it takes.
For example, East Alabama Medical Center, in Opelika, Ala., works with local food banks, while the mobile health program at Grady Health, in Atlanta, partners with Habitat for Humanity for its “Aging in Place” program aimed at helping older adults live safely in their homes. Through this initiative, health care professionals and Habitat for Humanity construction specialists assess the homeowner’s needs and provide home modifications, including accessibility upgrades, safety features, and other changes to ensure the homeowner’s well-being and independence.
Partnerships with local nursing and medical schools are mutually beneficial, as hospitals gain additional staffing support for mobile health while students get valuable hands-on experience working with the community.
Collaboration with local government also is a piece of the puzzle. Departments of health and social services often pitch in by offering additional resources, creating more robust and sustainable mobile health programs.
These combined efforts showcase the resilience and adaptability of essential hospitals, demonstrating that, even when hospitals face significant challenges, innovation and strong partnerships can lead to lasting community impact.
The Institute is excited to support essential hospitals in enhancing mobile health and share meaningful insights with the association membership.
To learn more about mobile health care at essential hospitals, please visit EssentialCommunities.org.
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