MedNorth’s Mobile Medical Unit

The mobile medical unit has been such a lifesaver for MedNorth and our community. Mission Mobile Medical was very accommodating — they educated us about what the options were. The mobile medical unit is just so versatile. There are going to be so many areas that we are going to be able to use, even maybe outside of primary care.

MedNorth is a federally qualified health center, and we provide medical, dental and behavioral health services. We also provide pharmacy and an on-site lab, so we are sort of a one-stop shop. Patients can come in and get their primary care and dental services here.

MedNorth’s goal with the mobile unit is really to help us expand access to different types of services. Right now, certainly, we are helping address the COVID pandemic, but we certainly think that it will help us with all kinds of different types of outreach. It really is going to benefit us beyond what we initially thought we were getting.

When we realized that we were going to be needing a mobile medical unit, we started doing some price comparison and looking at other competitors in the area. We came across Mission Mobile Medical, and working with [Mission Mobile Medical]’s staff, they have just been really patient with us and helping us figure out what kind of equipment we needed. So we did a leasing option with [Mission Mobile Medical], and then we decided after about three or four months that we liked it — and it was such a good benefit to MedNorth that we were going to go ahead and just purchase the unit.

It is currently staffed full time. It is utilized eight to ten hours a day with three staff. The medical unit was really designed to meet our specific needs. It is accommodating to staff, so they are not sort of tripping over each other.

What I would say to any medical organization that is considering a mobile outreach unit is that they should definitely look at Mission Mobile Medical to identify exactly what their needs are and what the possibilities are. In working with Mission Mobile Medical, they have been really understanding about the need that we had at the time, so we were able to work with [Mission Mobile Medical]’s staff to get the equipment that we needed in the van to ensure its safety for our primary care team and our patients.