Preventive healthcare and dental care soon could be rolling up to some Florida senior living communities in the form of mobile health clinics.
Vera Medical Vehicles, in collaboration with Vera Healthcare, is deploying a fleet of healthcare buses to help close care gaps across the state in health professional shortage areas and provide access for senior living residents and other older adults.
The mobile clinics will make stops in 50 Florida counties to help address healthcare accessibility challenges through collaborations with communities, senior living communities and organizations in each region.
A Vera spokesman told McKnight’s Senior Living pre-screening and services will be provided at no charge to participants during the initial rollout. Mobile clinics are scheduled over the next two weeks at Willowbrook Assisted Living and WillowCreek Assisted Living & Memory Care in Lake City, FL, as well as Berryhill Manor Independent and Assisted Living in Milton, FL, and Crown Court in Inverness, FL.
More than 6.6 million Floridians were living in health professional shortage areas in 2020, and the state is facing a 74% increase in its 75-and-older population by 2035, according to Vera Medical Vehicles.
“Florida is facing urgent demand for preventive care, and the problem is even more significant for vulnerable aging populations that are often waiting months to schedule appointments through Medicare or Medicaid,” Vera Medical Vehicles founder and CEO Dharma Nukarapu said. “With this initial campaign, we want to demonstrate the untapped potential of mobile clinics to close care gaps and improve access to clinicians.”
She said that Vera is uniquely positioned to bridge healthcare access and affordability gaps by bringing resources and equipment to people’s doorsteps.
The initial deployment of buses will focus on oral healthcare — teeth cleanings, exams and X-rays — with plans to roll out additional healthcare services, including electroencephalograms/electrocardiograms, medication monitoring and regular checkups. Some senior living communities have signed up for recurring visits, according to the Vera spokesman, but the mobile clinics also provide an on-demand service via which a bus will be deployed based on a community’s specific needs.
The company said it has plans to launch similar operations in Georgia, Kansas, Missouri, North Carolina and Texas.
