Health Clinic on Wheels Delivers Care to the Underserved in Dutchess County 

The RV parked in front of the North East Community Center in Millerton was a big blue source of curiosity on Thursday afternoon. As local politicians answered questions from passersby, the staffers for Dutchess County’s new, $250,000 Mobile Health Clinic helped with self-guided tours of the vehicle. They also provided tick removal kits, blood pressure checks, Covid tests kits, tick prevention key chains, NARCAN information and Dutchess County pens. The rollout lasted two hours before the MHC rolled on to its next location. 

The federal Human Resources and Services Administration has determined that Eastern Dutchess County has a Medically Underserved Population, a designation for “a group of people living in a geographic area with a shortage of primary health care services and facing economic, cultural or linguistic barriers to access to health care.”  

Mobile Health Clinics (MHCs) have been delivering care to underserved patients for 20 years. There are now 2,000 MHCs in the U.S., a 40% increase since the Covid pandemic, when they were widely used for testing and vaccinations. The vehicle parks in a convenient site for easy access and mainly provides testing and preventive services, which can drastically cut the need for ER visits and hospitalizations. The care is affordable, effective and sustainable. 

Assemblymember Didi Barrett, in her fifth term representing the 106th District, has wanted to use MHCs in disadvantaged areas of eastern and northern Dutchess County for years, especially for behavioral and mental health needs. “I had many conversations about this with the Dutchess County Executive even before Covid hit,” she said.

Barrett secured a $250,000 grant from the State and Municipal Funds Initiative to purchase the new RV. A handicap-accessible, mini-med center on wheels, it drew a crowd for its grand unveiling on Thursday that included Barrett, Dutchess County Executive William O’Neil and Anthony Ruggiero, the assistant commissioner for administration of Department of Behavioral and Community Health (DBCH). 

The vehicle has three main compartments. Toward the front, there’s a conference room for screenings, meetings and classes. In the middle is a lab, where bloods can be drawn and processed and vaccinations stored. The back section is a medical office, allowing health care providers to conduct private interviews with patients. 

Barrett has been working closely with the DBCH, which will be in charge of the mobile clinic’s staffing, services, scheduling and billing. Fees will be based on the service provided and the patient’s ability to pay, with funding provided by the county.  

“Our program may also hook young people interested in career development,” Barrett said. “An MHC brings together many different disciplines to serve the community.” 

Among the free services will be Covid testing, tick treatments, NARCAN training and kits, sexually transmissible infection screening and treatment, and referrals for mental health or social services. 

Primary and urgent care services will not be provided, according to O’Neil. “Our main purpose is health screening and connecting the underserved to the social and mental health services they need,” he said. “We are a work in progress.” 

Douglas Aucoin, a registered nurse assigned to the mobile unit, said that it will function much like a DBCH clinic. He’ll work with nurse practitioner Dori Bischof, who can prescribe antibiotics if needed for tick bites or sexually transmissible infections. “We encourage the patient to follow up with their own physician, Aucoin said; ”We don’t interfere with existing doctor-patient relationships.”  

The mobile clinic’s location will be largely based on need. DBCH is first working at increasing community awareness. They have contacted schools, and the RV will be on hand for the Office of the Aging Summer Picnic Series as well as various community days and ag days.  

Ruggiero encouraged communities that want the mobile med center’s services to contact the DBCH directly. “Our MHC will be unique, the only one like it in Dutchess County,” he said. “The services we provide will be based on what each community needs.”