Types of Care

The BC Mobile Medical Unit meets the needs of every mission by using a customized and collaborative approach to planning and working with health authority leaders and event managers.

With 1,100 square feet of wheelchair-accessible space, the MMU can be used to deliver a range of clinical health care:

Primary care
Outreach clinics
Emergency/critical care
Emergency surgery

The MMU clinical team includes physicians, nurses and paramedics, with a wide range of educational expertise, including pre-hospital, acute care, and disaster medicine.

In clinical missions, their primary role is to support site operations, clinical leaders and direct care staff in planning and delivery of health care. Typically, the clinical site clinicians provide patient care in the MMU.

Primary care

The MMU can be adapted for primary care or outreach programs, and is useful for multi-disciplinary teams, such as doctors, psychosocial nurses, and other experts who work together to provide care in one location. There are numerous benefits to patients when the MMU visits rural communities for primary care:

Access for patients in marginalized communities

Significantly reduced travel time for patients and families

Patients are seen within their own community and connected through their normal health care provider.

Outreach clinics

The MMU program is flexible to collaborate with health authority leadership and First Nations communities as to what type of clinic the MMU can support. Potential requests can include:

Sexual health
Dental screening and hygiene
Diabetic clinic
Renal
Cardiac and stroke clinic
HIV screenings
Community health
Point of care testing
Radiology and ultrasound capability
Pulmonary function testing

Some example primary care missions and outreach clinics:

2012 – Interior Health Authority, pediatric and adult hemophilia clinic.

2016 – Cowichan Tribes, pediatric respiratory therapy clinic.

To read more about primary care missions and outreach clinics, please check out news & stories.

Emergency support

As a high-tech hospital on wheels, the MMU is ready to be deployed 24/7 to help a health care facility during a disaster or other emergency. Emergency deployments generally involve a form of natural disaster or infrastructure failure such as fire or flood, and can also involve public health emergencies.

Along with the physical unit, the MMU’s team of clinicians can serve as an additional resource to a community experiencing an emergency event.

Emergency surgery

The MMU has a separate room that can be configured to a one-table operating room where emergency surgical and life-saving procedures can be performed prior to transport to a higher level of care.

Below are some examples of emergency deployments and the various types of care that we have provided:

2012 – Jim Pattison Outpatient Care & Surgery Centre, business continuity response

2016-2017 – St. Paul’s Hospital, opioid overdose response unit

To read more about our critical care missions, please check out news & stories

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