In the US, an estimated 270 per 100,000 women die from preventable deaths. Greater access to preventative screenings and exams could help reduce the number of unnecessary deaths, but building new health care facilities and finding providers to staff them is no easy feat. That’s why one California county is turning to a mobile solution to address gaps in women’s health care accessibility.
In 2022, the San Luis Obispo County Office of Public Health awarded $500,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to the Community Action Partnership of San Luis Obispo, or CAPSLO, a nonprofit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty. With the money, CAPSLO purchased a mobile health unit to provide reproductive care and services to county residents.
The mobile unit aims to fill service gaps for county residents who have difficulty obtaining routine and preventive care for their reproductive health. A 2023 survey of more than 3,000 residents found that barriers to care included an inadequate number of health care providers in their community, a lack of transportation options to visit health clinics and high medical costs, said Claire Hermann, community improvement manager at the San Luis. Obispo County Public Health Department. Respondents who were unhoused cited stigma against the homeless population as a barrier to seeking care.
The vehicle is equipped to provide resources and services including contraception, breast exams, pap smears and STD testing and treatment. The van will be staffed with two medical assistants and a medical provider, the San Luis Obispo Grandstand reported.
The mobile unit launched in March and while it is still a relatively new service to the province, it has not yet seen a huge increase in visitors, said Kayla Willburn, CAPSLO clinic director. Approximately four to six patients seek care in the department every day Santa Maria sun reported.
Willburn said many patients are unhoused individuals, and Hermann said the mobile unit has mainly visited areas near homeless shelters, homeless encampments or affordable housing.
“We are learning how to balance the need for confidentiality and privacy with being in public places,” Willburn said. CAPSLO is working with local libraries to enter into agreements to use the van in their parking lots, and the organization hopes to eventually work in high schools as well.
An estimated 3,000 mobile health units are in use in the US, providing 10 million visits annually. The vehicles can cost at least $400,000 to $500,000 and require ongoing costs to pay staff, to park and charge the vehicle, to replenish supplies and equipment and to perform other tasks, said Elizabeth Jones, senior director of service improvement at National Family Planning. and Reproductive Health Association.
But offering preventive care to people who might not otherwise have access to it is invaluable, she said.
“We know that preventive care saves dollars in the long run, but the [health care] The system we work in is not set up to prioritize prevention, especially preventive care for women and people with a uterus,” Jones explained.
For example, a July report from the Commonwealth Fund found that a lack of access to secondary health screenings contributed to high death rates from breast and cervical cancer among women.
Mobile clinics can also help “build trust in a profession that is especially rife with distrust [with] reproductive health,” Jones said.
For residents where reproductive care and services such as contraception are restricted, for example, traveling health vehicles are particularly useful, she added. Someone in a state that bans abortion might be afraid to just get a pregnancy test for fear of a positive result appearing on their health record. But a mobile health clinic parked on the border of two states with opposing policies offers a solution for those in need, Jones said.
Earlier this year, Cleveland deployed the first of two mobile units offering reproductive care services, including HIV and STD screenings, pregnancy testing, contraception and other family planning and counseling resources. The Cleveland Department of Public Health has allocated $1.1 million in ARPA funds to purchase and equip the vehicles with medical equipment and pay staff.
And in Iowa, the Linn County Board of Supervisors approved ARPA funding for a mobile health clinic that launched in July. It offers services such as testing for sexually transmitted infections and vaccinations.
The next steps for health leaders include considering sustainable funding sources for mobile health clinics, as COVID-era funding such as ARPA dollars — which helped catapult community outreach and improvement efforts — dry up, Jones said .
