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Rural Health Information Hub
Rural Health Information Hub

Rural Project Examples: Mobile and episodic healthcare delivery

Effective Examples

funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Updated/reviewed December 2022

  • Need: To increase access to medical screening for miners in New Mexico.
  • Intervention: A mobile screening clinic with telemedicine capability screens miners for respiratory and other conditions.
  • Results: In a survey, 92% of miners reported their care as very good, while the other 8% reported it as good. The program has expanded to three other states.

Other Project Examples

Updated/reviewed October 2024

  • Need: Critical Access Hospitals in Idaho were not able to afford a fixed MRI system.
  • Intervention: The hospitals partnered to purchase a mobile MRI unit to travel among facilities.
  • Results: The MRI unit went into service in 2012, providing hundreds of scans per month and traveling among six member hospitals in rural Idaho.

Added July 2024

  • Need: To increase access to preventive dental care among children living in rural Arizona.
  • Intervention: A nonprofit organization formed to offer free, school-based preventive dental services to children in two rural Arizona counties.
  • Results: Throughout the 2023-24 school year, Tooth B.U.D.D.S. provided preventive services to 1,710 students in rural Graham and Greenlee Counties. Program staff use a telehealth platform to connect children to local dentists for follow-up care.
funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Added November 2023

  • Need: To fill gaps in care for rural communities in southeastern Virginia while providing clinical placement opportunities for nursing students.
  • Intervention: A free mobile health clinic staffed by Old Dominion University nursing students that visits rural schools and other community centers.
  • Results: Hundreds of students have gained hands-on rural experience working in the clinic since its launch.
funded by the Health Resources Services Administration

Updated/reviewed August 2023

  • Need: To bring medication-assisted treatment to rural and underserved areas in Colorado.
  • Intervention: Six mobile health units travel to 32 counties and offer services like telehealth sessions, counseling, naloxone, and referrals to wraparound services.
  • Results: The units traveled more than 100,000 miles from January 2020 to January 2021.

Updated/reviewed March 2023

  • Need: Lack of access to oral healthcare for children from limited-income families in the rural and urban areas of South Dakota.
  • Intervention: Delta Dental of South Dakota launched the Delta Dental Mobile Program in 2004 to expand access to oral healthcare services to children throughout the rural state.
  • Results: The Delta Dental Mobile Program has provided over $38 million in dental care to more than 68,000 South Dakota children.
funded by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy

Updated/reviewed July 2019

  • Need: Meeting both advanced practice pharmacy student education needs and patient healthcare needs in a nearby rural/underserved area.
  • Intervention: With support from multiple organizations, students in the Ohio Northern University's College of Pharmacy program use a motor coach to deliver a wide range of healthcare services during scheduled outreach visits.
  • Results: In the program's first two years, point-of-care screening, immunizations, and chronic disease prevention and management education have been provided to 800+ Hardin County, Ohio, residents.

For examples from other sources, see: