MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Healthcare is vital to everyone’s life, but access is not always there. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is making strides in ensuring rural communities get the care they need.
What looks like your average charter bus is healthcare on wheels. UTHSC unveiled its Mobile Health Unit Thursday, providing healthcare where it's needed most.
“It’s important to have a unit go to where the people have the need,” said Wendy Likes, UTHSC College of Nursing Dean.
That need is prevalent in rural areas. According to the Shelby County Health Department, 16 hospitals in Tennessee have closed since 2010. Most are in rural areas. That has caused many patients to rely on urban hospitals such as Regional One.
“The inability or the extreme inconvenience that people have in these rural communities having to drive an hour or two hours to get healthcare,” said Likes.
“The top two issues in our local community are the fact of lack of transportation in rural areas and lack of access to medical treatment,” said Maurice Gaines, Lauderdale County, Tennessee, Mayor.
Lauderdale County has a life expectancy rate lower than the state and national average.
“A lot of these individuals won’t go to the doctor until it’s way too late. This provides an early warning, if you will,” said Gaines. “We have quite a large population of impoverished or folks living in poverty. This will be able to provide them with healthcare that they probably would not get otherwise.”
That hits home for nursing students, Yulia Ablaeva and Alicia Cox. “I’m used to rural communities and seeing how access to health providers can be a struggle,” said Cox.
“We’re immigrants, so when we came here, we didn’t know a lot and we didn’t know how to acquire the right healthcare,” said Ablaeva.
The two will be working the unit assisting patients in Lake and Lauderdale Counties four days a week. “It gives us great exposure because once we graduate and once we begin to work as registered nurses, it’s important that we not only service the community we live in but we go out into rural areas and assist them as well,” said Cox.
Gaines said they are also hoping students develop a passion for helping rural communities and stay. The mobile health unit will provide care from primary care to prenatal care to mental health.