Carthage Area Hospital plans to offer a mobile health clinic to rural communities later this year

CARTHAGE, N.Y. — Carthage Area Hospital is planning to start offering a mobile health clinic to provide services to rural communities of the North Country “and beyond.”

The hospital anticipates the arrival of the vehicle housing the mobile unit either this June or July.

The clinic will bring primary and preventive health-care services into communities, “eliminating the need for long commutes for necessary care that cost patient’s time, missed work, and safety,” Carthage Area Hospital said in a news release.

The mobile clinic will provide services that include vaccinations and well-visits, along with important screenings in a “secure, safe environment, close to home,” the hospital contends.

“The delivery of health care is evolving and we have to adapt to meet the ever-changing needs of our patients,” Rich Duvall, CEO of Carthage Area Hospital, said. “One of the greatest challenges in accessing health-care services by patients in the North Country is the lack of reliable transportation. This project will help address that, as we can now bring health-care services closer to the patient. This mobile clinic allows us to reach patients that would otherwise not be able to receive health care as readily as those in more populated areas.”

Two grant awards are making the mobile clinic possible. One is a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant totaling $297,174.00. The second grant is for $30,500 from the North Country Initiative (NCI) through the 2022 Promising Practices Fund, Carthage Area Hospital noted.

The initial rollout will focus on vaccine education, such as COVID-19, flu, and HPV (human papillomavirus vaccines). As this is grant-funded, the mobile clinic is restricted to vaccine education until July 31.

Beginning Aug. 1, the clinic will transition to providing health-care services, in addition to ongoing vaccination education and promotion. A mid-level health-care professional (a nurse practitioner or a physician’s assistant) and a licensed practical nurse will staff the mobile clinic, initially two to three days a week, per the release.