Blog Archives
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Mobile Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Treatment
WVU Medicine is expanding access to essential care by delivering prevention and treatment services directly to communities across West Virginia, a state where geography often limits access to health care. Through its mobile health fleet—including Bonnie’s Bus, a mobile mammography unit, and Lucas, a mobile lung cancer screenings unit—WVU brings high-quality screening and early detection services to residents in even the most remote areas. Operated by WVU Hospital and the WVU Cancer Prevention and Control team, in partnership with local clinics, businesses, and community providers, these units ensure rural patients receive timely, lifesaving care close to home.
Building on this model, WVU Medicine operates the Mobile Comprehensive Opioid Addiction Treatment (COAT) program to support individuals and families affected by the opioid crisis in rural areas. Serving about 100 patients, offering flexible levels of care on a weekly, bimonthly, or monthly basis, based on patients’ needs. Services include medication-assisted treatment, individual and group therapy, health screenings, and wraparound support.
The Mobile COAT program is more than a treatment model; it is a community-centered approach. By collaborating with peer recovery specialists, quick-response teams, and local community providers, the program helps patients address social determinants of health, such as housing instability, food insecurity, and transportation challenges. Delivering care in a mobile setting helps reduce stigma, foster trust within communities, and remove logistical barriers that often prevent individuals from seeking help.
By integrating cancer prevention, primary care, and substance use disorder treatment into its mobile health strategy, WVU Medicine demonstrates how bringing care to the patient strengthens community health, advances equity, and responds directly to some of West Virginia’s most urgent health needs.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on UVA Health Mobile Care Clinic
In August 2024, UVA Health launched its Mobile Care Unit to expand access to preventative and primary care across Charlottesville and the surrounding region. Aligned with UVA Health’s strategic goal of cultivating healthy communities and improving health outcomes, the unit uses a data-driven approach to identify patients with unmet health needs, access challenges, or barriers contributing to poor health outcomes.
Staffed by nurse practitioners, a registered nurse, a community paramedic, and other clinical, financial, and social support providers, the Mobile Care Unit delivers a comprehensive range of services, including:
- Primary care and chronic condition management
- Point-of-care testing and screenings for social drivers of health
- Telehealth access
- Care coordination, referrals, medication management, and home safety assessments
The program is supported by UVA Health stakeholders across informatics, data science, patient access, financial aid, and interpreter services, ensuring seamless integration of medical and social support for patients.
Operating in close collaboration with UVA Health Population Health, Family Medicine, The Center for Telehealth, and UVA Health Pharmacy, the Mobile Care Unit complements UVA Health’s broader mobile health portfolio, including the Mobile Mammography Van, which served over 1,600 patients in fiscal year 2025.
In its inaugural year, the Mobile Care Unit reached approximately 150 residents, prioritizing neighborhoods identified through the MAPP2Health District 10 needs assessment and the Area Deprivation Index. Partnerships with the Fifeville Neighborhood Association, Habitat for Humanity, Blue Ridge Health District, the Virginia Department of Health, Greene County Supervisors, and local food hubs integrate medical services with support for food security and other social needs identified through social drivers of health screening.
By bridging health care delivery with community-based resources, the Mobile Care Unit strengthens UVA Health’s connection to the communities it serves, reduces barriers and increases access to care, and advances health outcomes across Charlottesville and the surrounding areas.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Mobile Medical Unit
Since 2011, Huntsville Hospital’s Mobile Medical Unit (MMU) has provided free health screenings, preventive care, and patient education throughout Madison County, Ala. Using a fully equipped mobile specialty vehicle, the program extends essential health services to rural and urban communities with limited access to care, reaching seniors, people experiencing homelessness, and low-income or racially diverse communities.
Staffed by a nurse or physician, the MMU makes up to 22 community stops on a revolving schedule each month. Most services are provided at no cost to patients, underscoring the hospital’s commitment to equity and community health. The program emphasizes health literacy, early disease detection, and preventative health behaviors, empowering patients to take a proactive role in their well-being.
Annually, the unit aims to conduct roughly 230 site visits and 6,800 screenings, along with 1,600 patient interactions at homeless shelters. By addressing social determinants of health such as transportation challenges, language barriers, and limited access to primary care, the MMU program builds trust and provides a vital safety net for uninsured and underserved residents.
Through its consistent presence and commitment to removing barriers, the Vámonos Mobile Medical Unit has become a cornerstone of community health in Madison County, advancing preventive care and closing health care gaps among vulnerable populations.
By Amanda Jepson | Categories: | Comments Off on Carilion Clinic Mobile Health
Carilion Clinic’s Department of Family and Community Medicine provides primary care to more than 230,000 Virginians through 42 practices, three virtual physicians, and a dedicated Mobile Health (MH) team. The MH team expands access through a mobile van that is staffed by registered nurses and travels directly to patients’ homes. A part-time nurse practitioner offers additional support via telemedicine.
The mobile program primarily serves individuals with mobility or transportation challenges, those with unmet care needs, and patients requiring follow-up care after hospital discharge. During home visits, nurses use remote physical exam tools integrated with a telemedicine platform to conduct comprehensive evaluations. They also provide screenings, point-of-care testing and blood draws, health education, and connections to ongoing primary and specialty care.
Throughout the mobile health learning collaborative, the Carilion MH team incorporated the MH service into the “virtual primary care” clinic within the electronic health record (EHR). Aligning mobile and virtual services was essential to create a referral and initiate nurse-visits. The MH team designed and integrated a Mobile Health referral into the EHR, which enables a primary care provider to seamlessly refer a patient for a home visit and select the services they need. Additionally, the MH team designed a “nurse visit” within the EHR, which is essential to document and record care delivery such as lab draws, patient education, medication and care gap review.
Collaboration with Carilion Clinic’s Infection Disease (ID) team has renewed interest in operating an additional mobile health unit. The ID and MH teams will work together to visit patients diagnosed with Hepatitis C to deliver laboratory work and other support to ensure treatment adherence. These patients often live in rural areas and are unable to travel to the clinic site to see the ID team due to transportation barriers. The health system is training staff for this initiative, expected to launch in November 2025.
By bringing high-quality care directly to patients, this alternative model of mobile care delivery reduces access barriers, improves continuity of care, and strengthens health outcomes in rural southwest Virginia.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Community Heart Failure Program
In October 2023, Harborview Medical Center launched an 18-month pilot called Community Heart Failure Program (CHFP). The program delivers trauma-informed care to heart failure patients with frequent hospital admissions who face barriers to care, such as stable housing. The goal of the program is to engage patients who do not participate in traditional ambulatory care in their community. The program aims to reduce barriers to care, reduce hospital admissions, and emergency department utilization. Initial program data showed an over 35% reduction in hospital admissions and an over 25% reduction in emergency department visits, demonstrating increased care for heart failure patients disengaged in care. Learn more here.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Prevention and Recovery in Opioid Use Disorder (PROUD) program
Through the Prevention and Recovery in Opioid Use Disorder (PROUD) program at the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center, patients work with physicians in the emergency department to create individualized treatment plans to support recovery from opioid use disorder and other substance use conditions. Additionally, patients are connected to an outpatient community partner to continue their treatment with guaranteed follow-up within 72 hours after release from the emergency department. The majority of PROUD program participants are uninsured and struggle with multiple social determinants of health; however, patients are not turned away due to financial limitations.
The program partners with the hospitalist and emergency medical services teams within the hospital to provide care through a mobile clinic for street outreach. Future enhancements aim to expand partnerships with outpatient clinics and increasing mobile outreach efforts.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Jail Release Program
The Jail Release Program at Parkland Health uses a comprehensive approach to link patients recently released from the Dallas County jail to community-based care. The program developed a release workflow and referral hub in collaboration with community-based organizations and the correctional health team at the Dallas County Jail, consisting of a nurse navigator, referral coordinator, peer navigators, and social workers. This referral hub assists patients with their transition back to the community by linking patients with services such as transitional housing, health insurance, pharmacy assistance, career planning and placement, and social support networks. Additionally, patients are supported with transportation through Uber and bus passes. The nutritional needs of patients are also served through connections to food pantries.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Building Recovery Integration for Drug Users into Emergency Medicine (BRIDGE)
Tampa General Hospital’s Building Recovery Integration for Drug Users into Emergency Medicine (BRDIGE) program offers a range of services, including a mobile suboxone clinic, an office-based opioid therapy clinic, mental health and substance use counseling, and essential wrap-around services to improve post-discharge outcomes, decrease re-admissions and shorten the length of hospital stays all while providing world-class care to adults struggling with opioid use. The program, which opened Florida’s second legal syringe exchange that treats over 2,000 patients, is making a significant impact in the community.
The BRIDGE program collaborates with the Hillsborough Housing Authority to assist patients with housing instability, collaborates with local food banks to expand their ability to address food insecurity through mobile pantry days, and recently engaged a volunteer attorney to provide free consultations to patients facing legal challenges that can hinder their full engagement in their recovery program.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Road to Care Mobile Addiction Service
The UMass Memorial Health Road to Care Mobile Addiction Service is a street medicine program that offers walkup addiction care in the city of Worcester, MA. The Mobile Addiction Service provides free care to individuals experiencing housing insecurity, including prescribing suboxone and distributing naloxone kits in areas such as encampments, shelters, and food pantries. The program’s goal is to reduce opioid-related morbidity and mortality by offering mobile addiction services, including treatment for OUD. The mobile clinic can serve up to 30 patients in one-afternoon session, ensuring that care reaches all populations where they are. More than 2000 individuals have accessed the Road to Care Mobile Addiction van in over 11,000 encounters since May 2021.
By aoguagha | Categories: | Comments Off on Lung Cancer Screening on Wheels
LUCAS, a fully mobile lung cancer screening unit launched in 2021 by the West Virginia University Cancer Institute, is the first of its kind in the United States. Designed to reach rural communities with limited access to healthcare, it travels across West Virginia from March to December, screening 25 to 30 residents daily. As of December 2024, LUCAS has screened 4,600 people, detected 55 lung cancer cases, and provided smoking cessation support and emotional care. Click here for more information.
