The City of Franklin and Southhampton County have partnered with Old Dominion University to launch a mobile healthcare clinic that will serve people who, otherwise, would have to travel great lengths to see a doctor.
"Almost every week, someone in my family is going to one of the doctors," said Henry, a lifelong Franklin resident. "We're usually going to Suffolk, Harborview, Norfolk, or Virginia Beach."
Enjoying coffee at Fred's Restaurant along Franklin's historic Main Street, Henry says sometimes going to the doctor is a day-long activity.
When News 3 Reporter Penny Kmitt asked him how long a round trip to his physician is, he responded, "If I'm going to Virginia Beach, three hours."
Franklin's Mayor, Bobby Cutchins, says Henry's long drive to the doctor isn't rare for his residents, or anyone living in rural Virginia.
"Some people can't drive and get to where they need to go, out of town, 45 minutes to an hour away," he said. "So we're really excited to partner with Old Dominion University on this."
While the mobile health clinic may look like an RV (because it is), when expanded, it includes two full patient rooms and a waiting area.
"You can do anything in here you could do in a normal doctor's office," said Carolyn Rutledge, the associate chair of Old Dominion University's School of Nursing. "You think of Virginia, and you think of all the rural areas, [so you assume] we've got to have great healthcare here. No, we don't."
The beds in both patient rooms come equipped with stirrups, which Rutledge says was done purposefully to provide rural women with additional healthcare options.
According to the Virginia Department of Health, parts of both Franklin and Southampton County are considered maternity care deserts. This means it takes women, on average, 47 minutes to see an OB-GYN.
When you combine a 47-minute drive time with the length of the actual appointment, Rutledge says most women, especially those living in low-income areas, don't have three hours to spend seeing the gynecologist. This means, unfortunately, for many rural women, their healthcare often falls on the back burner.
In addition to gynecology, the mobile healthcare clinic will also offer specialty pop-ups that will include physical therapy, optometry, and mental health services.
"We ranked 47th in the nation for mental health for adults," said Rutledge.
According to VDH, the median drive time to the closest mental health services for a Franklin County resident is about 41 minutes. For Southhampton residents, the median drive time is a bit greater at 47 minutes.
Amanda Hudgins, the mobile clinic's lead nurse practitioner, says this, unfortunately, means mental healthcare often gets pushed aside, but can then manifest in other health issues.
"There are a lot of parallels in the obesity rate and the lack of care for mental health," she explained.
Hudgins will be driving and leading the mobile clinic. When she's not hosting a specialized clinic, such as physical therapy, Hudgins will be assisted by nurses studying at ODU to provide patient care.
According to the latest data from the Rural Health Information Hub, nurses are in high demand in Virginia's rural areas. This is especially true for Southhampton County, which shows there are less than three nurse practitioners per every 10,000 Southhampton residents.
Hudgins is from a rural area herself and hopes to inspire students to serve in areas where healthcare access is limited.
"This academic program is committed to placing our students in underserved populations so they'll stay there," she said. "Then they can be empowered to be part of that society and they can contribute back to the whole."
The mobile healthcare clinic comes with a price tag of $360,000, which is part of a $4 million grant Rutledge received to fund the service.
Typically, the van will travel to rural Virginia three days a week, from Tuesday to Thursday, and Rutledge says they plan to see about 20 patients a day.
"You're looking at 60 patients over the three-day period," she said. "And that's not including the ones that we might be monitoring through telehealth."
Rutledge says they plan to spread the word by parking outside of schools and sending flyers home with kids to let their parents know when the mobile clinic will be in their community.
"We can serve in parking lots," she explained. "In Walmarts, we can go to trailer parks, we can go to the school."
The van also has a large QR code printed on its side. Residents can scan the code and see a schedule of the clinic's upcoming travel plans and specialized clinics.
The mobile healthcare clinic plans to hit the road in March.
