A Mobile Health Clinic is essentially a doctor's office and clinic on wheels. A specially outfitted truck provides examination rooms, laboratory services, and special medical tests to those in remote areas who have access to little or no medical facilities, and to patients who do not have the resources to travel to obtain care.

Why is this important to your community?

While the CONNECT region contains an extensive supply of health care providers and facilities, these resources are not well distributed throughout the region. All of the CONNECT counties, with the exception of Mecklenburg County, have a lower concentration of physicians when compared to NC/SC averages. In particular, the ten surrounding “outer” counties have generally lower overall health status outcomes than the “inner” counties. Yet, each of the 14 CONNECT counties has medically underserved areas – areas characterized by too few primary care providers, high infant mortality rates, high poverty, and/or high elderly population. While poverty does not directly cause poor health, it is associated with a number of quality of life factors that indirectly reduce access to health care services, the adoption of a healthy lifestyle, and access to healthy, stress-free environments. The prevalence of chronic health conditions—including heart disease, stroke, pneumonia, COPD, and complications from diabetes—in the region’s outer counties requires solutions that make it easier for residents to obtain the preventative health care services they need. A Mobile Health Clinic can be part of those solutions. Counties with relatively low health risk behavior rates have lower than average unemployment and poverty levels and higher than average education and household income levels.