Mobile health clinics play a unique role in addressing the complex health needs of communities’ most vulnerable members by enabling trusted providers to meet patients where they are and to provide clinical and other wraparound services that address various social determinants of health. There is, however, a gap in our current understanding of how patients describe their engagement with mobile health care and how they perceive and articulate the value of this approach to care: What is the “special sauce” of mobile clinics that resonates most with patients in the community?

Given this opportunity to expand our understanding of patients’ perceptions of mobile health care, in 2022, Health Resources in Action (HRiA), a nonprofit public health consulting organization, received funding from the Leon Lowenstein Foundation to conduct a patient-centered exploratory study. The primary goals of this study were to: 1) explore patient experiences with mobile health clinics and 2) understand the value and impact of mobile health clinics for patients, their families and within the communities they serve.

This study identified several key findings and validated previous evidence of the value of the mobile health sector from the patient perspective. Mobile health programs provide convenient, accessible, patient-centered care to diverse populations. Patients believe these programs bridge gaps to care and provide critical services to individuals who otherwise would not access care through the traditional healthcare system. Mobile health providers build ongoing genuine and trusting patient-provider relationships that patients believe keep them engaged. Mobile programs keep people physically and mentally healthy through disease prevention and management, as well as by supporting patients’ agency over their own health. Patients prefer to continue receiving care at mobile programs over other health care settings and would like to see future expansion of these programs.

Speakers:
 ◦ Kaitlyn Guild, Research Associate, Health Resources in Action
◦ Heather Nelson, Managing Director, Research and Evaluation, Health Resources in Action

Conference 2023