In an effort to improve healthcare accessibility, U.Va. Health has instituted a mobile care unit that will provide care to underserved communities in central Virginia. The mobile care unit van will visit the Fifeville and Southwood neighborhoods of Charlottesville twice per month, on the second and fourth Tuesdays and Wednesdays, respectively. This unit will offer a plethora of services, tending to both acute and non-emergent healthcare needs.
U.Va. Health unveiled the unit with a ribbon cutting event at the Boys and Girls Club on Thursday. At the event, nurse practitioners spoke about the care and services offered via the unit — these services range from general health checkups and lab tests to chronic disease management. Residents can call ahead to make an appointment, but walk-in patients are also welcome at the van, which will park at community centers in each neighborhood from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m on days when it is offering services.
Residents can pay for care with most insurance plans, including Medicare and Medicaid. With a chief goal of providing service to those who encounter barriers to receiving healthcare, the unit works to accommodate its patients’ unique financial needs.
Dr. Craig Kent, chief executive officer of U.Va. Health and executive vice president for health affairs, said that the unit is a way to bring U.Va. Health to residents who typically face geographic and financial barriers to accessing care.
“If those people can’t come to us, why don’t we go to them?” Kent said.
According to Kent, the initiative to improve health equity and increase access to healthcare began after U.Va. Health had been successful in serving its larger Virginia community during the COVID-19 pandemic through vaccinations, mass testing and inpatient care. Kent said that during this time, U.Va. Health added another pillar to its traditional missions of clinical care, research and education — this new pillar was community.
U.Va. Health hoped to continue these outreach efforts, according to Kent, who was among a group at U.Va. Health led by Novella Thompson, administrator of the Population Health Department, working to launch the unit.
“We had done a great job during COVID, but we needed to continue that work and carry it beyond,” Kent said. “There are parts of our communities where people are not receiving the level of primary care that they need … [and] that’s not right.”
The target communities of Fifeville and Southwood were chosen by analyzing the Virginia Health Opportunity Index — a group of 13 indicators providing insight into the ability for Virginians to live healthy lives — across zip codes, according to Kent. Developers of the initiative found these communities to demonstrate the greatest need by this metric, although they recognize many more communities statewide that demonstrate similar need and that they hope to reach in the future.
U.Va. Health received $347,060.95 in federal funding to bring this project to fruition. Virginia senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine helped to secure this funding for the unit. Additionally, many staff across U.Va. Health and the U.Va. Medical Center contributed to efforts to realize the mobile care unit’s unveiling, according to Kent.
In the wake of the ribbon cutting ceremony, Kent said that it will be essential for the unit to cultivate trust within the communities it serves. It is trust, according to Kent, which will encourage patients to feel comfortable seeking care. He noted that some of this trust has already been built — once residents started utilizing the vans and sharing their experiences with friends, the vans began to gain traction and the news spread.
“Some of the initial outreach has been trying to figure out how to create partnerships and trust in a way that people feel comfortable — that this is a good thing and that we want to participate,” Kent said.
Kent said that U.Va. Health must determine how quickly they can scale the initiative to serve more communities across Virginia. Once the initial unit reaches patient care capacity, the initiative hopes to increase the number of days the unit goes out in addition to potentially getting another van.
Recently, U.Va. Health has launched other programs along with the mobile care unit which support improving healthcare accessibility for Charlottesville residents. One such program is the SmART — street medicine, access, reduction and treatment — program. SmART was launched in 2024, in partnership with The Haven, a day shelter and housing resource center in Charlottesville. Through this program which is supported by a grant from the state Opioid Abatement Authority, U.Va. Health practitioners visit The Haven one time each week to offer medical care and support for those struggling with substance abuse.
Kent said that nurses have already seen notable success and tangible impacts of the mobile care unit in the communities the van serves.
“The most enjoyable part of that ribbon cutting was hearing our nurse practitioner … tell story after story of people [who] have been helped by the van and the appreciation of the communities,” Kent said. “We’re really pleased with this, and we think it’s going to be a great contribution … [to] surrounding communities in the years to come.”
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