By Jennifer Butters / Special to Healthcare Facilities Today

With the rise in COVID-19 across the U.S. and the world, it's inspiring to see mobile medical and community outreach vehicles being repurposed to assist with various critical services needed to support teams on the frontlines of COVID-19 response. Given the speed of the virus spread and the shelter-in-place and lockdown orders that are sweeping the country, the need for innovative and creative healthcare solutions is more critical than ever. 

Hospitals and outreach organizations are using specialty vehicles that are already built and upfitted for various medical uses and repurposing them to provide frontline support to those that need it most. Also, some hospitals are using RVs to give exhausted healthcare workers a place to sleep while others are leveraging these vehicles to increase mobile testing locations for seniors or individuals who can't leave their homes. To stay ahead of the pandemic that is increasingly stressing the facilities of brick-and-mortar healthcare facilities, municipalities, and healthcare providers need to rethink how they can provide care and services to the masses using mobile units. 

Mobile medical vehicles have been around in one form or another for over 50 years, and go well beyond the common bloodmobile and have grown in popularity in recent years. The vehicles provide convenient, alternative healthcare options across many applications, including general practitioner visits, mobile dentistry, mobile imaging, opioid treatment, and many more. These specialty vehicles help to extend the reach of traditional facilities and allow physicians to provide expert care to those who are underserved or unable to travel to brick and mortar locations. 

Mobile medical vehicles are being used to combat the coronavirus in many ways. For example, a family health clinic in Kansas City is offering COVID-19 drive-thru testing for patients with approved prescriptions from their doctor. And to assist in this effort, Heart to Heart International has deployed its mobile medical unit and volunteer healthcare providers to support the clinic with COVID-19 testing operations. The mobile unit is being used for healthcare workers to process tests away from other clinical services.

In New Hampshire, behind the building of Keady Family Practice in Claremont, is one of that region's first COVID-19 drive-thru test sites. The mobile medical unit is a converted Winnebago View. It's parked next to the building to assist with the testing of patients who are not currently showing symptoms.

Trinity Health of New England/St. Francis Hospital in Connecticut has partnered with Malta House of Care Mobile Medical Clinic to provide mobile testing operations. Malta provided their most recently retired mobile clinic, a 40' Winnebago, as a base of operations for Trinity's drive-through Coronavirus testing clinic on the Saint Francis Hospital campus.

The Clark County Health Department in Indiana is loaning its mobile health trailer to Clark Memorial Health. The unit is stationed outside the hospital's emergency room to prevent someone who could be infected with COVID-19 from walking into the hospital and potentially exposing other patients. The mobile unit is typically used for immunizations, vaccinations, and HIV screenings.

Also, mobile dental services provider, HENRY the Dentist, is looking to repurpose their vehicles for the COVID-19 response and assistance with mobile testing. The company provides on-site dental screenings for enterprise clients using vehicles built on a Winnebago platform. 

These use cases are popping up around the country at rapid speed. Still, in addition to mobile medical vehicles, many other vehicle manufacturers and rental businesses are stepping up to lend a hand. 

The RV Industry Association (RVIA) is working with the White House Coronavirus Task Force to supply RVs and specialty vehicles. The Task Force announced that the RVIA pledged to donate 20 RVs to the most critical health care settings in the country and provide an additional 100 RVs at below-market cost. The association and its members are also working directly with the municipalities and healthcare providers to help meet the needs of medical staff and citizens.

Additionally, the RV rental company Cruise America is currently renting about 100 RVs from its fleet of about 3,700 vehicles for commercial use. The report notes that a large number of these units are being used for government entities, businesses, and medical centers, including the Mayo Clinic, that are involved in the COVID-19 response.

Beyond businesses, we see community-based groups spontaneously coming together to help in innovative ways. A Dallas-area woman launched a creative idea for keeping her physician husband quarantined from their family when he is off duty during the COVID-19. The approach seeks to match medical personnel with people willing to donate an RV or camper for similar uses. This group, RVs for MDs, has grown to over 20,000 members in a matter of weeks and is matching RV owners with frontline healthcare and other emergency response workers every day.

Specialty vehicles can be used for many purposes during this crisis, including mobile testing units, medical triage units, command centers for essential workers, quarantine facilities for medical staff, community outreach for non-critical medical issues, patient transport vehicles, quarters for doctors and nurses, and even patient rooms for non-COVID related treatment.

Reports and studies prove that healthcare is more successful when the care goes to the community instead of requiring people to come to brick and mortar facilities. I encourage businesses and mobile healthcare providers to follow these examples and deploy existing units and vehicles to aid in the coronavirus response. Not only will your services help in the short term, but you will help shape the vision of mobile medical healthcare and future planning for national health crisis responses.

Jennifer Butters is the Director of Sales at Winnebago Specialty Vehicles Division.