by Tony Gray
posted 12 August 2021

WHITEHALL, NY --- Local residents are about to get another health care option in the form of a mobile health unit in the town park, two days a week.

Town officials have negotiatied with Queensbury-based Hudson Headwaters Health Network for months to bring a mobile health unit to Whitehall. Town Board Members improved infrastructure at the park and reworked contract details and almost everything was in place by early June.

Hudson Headwaters is a federally qualified medical care center, which means they are eligible for federal funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) but HRSA required a competing health agency to give their blessing before they would fund a mobile unit.

Vermont's Community Health Centers of the Rutland Region, with family health centers in Castleton and West Pawlett, could have prevented the mobile unit since their catchment area includes the New York towns of Whitehall, Granville and Hampton.

Their interim CEO Michael Gardner today said he has no objection to the mobile health unit. "I spoke with the CEO at Hudson Headwaters last week and he needs a letter of support from us because HRSA is requiring it," said Gardner. "I told him, if there are patients int the Whitehall area that are not being take care of, they need to be taken care of."

Garnder added he was appointed interim CEO in July and his to-do list was packed so it was a few weeks before he was able to talk with Hudson Headwaters. "Hopefully, they can get that unit in there and take care of patients soon," he said. "We have primary care and express care for walkins, in Castleton. We're more than willing to be part of the solution."

"We have around 40,000 patients and we have around 180,000 visits per year," Gardner said, adding Hudson Headwaters is a larger organization that they have had a strong partnership with for 15 years.

Town Councilman David Hollister said the mobile clinic can't happen soon enough. He notes the Glens Falls Hospital clinic across from Stewarts is only open a few days a week. "Residents need somewhere to go so they don't have to go a hundred miles to see someone," Hollister said. "It would be a good thing for the residents of this town and village to have health care they can depend on for a while."

An electric breaker has been installed at the Recreation center for the mobile health unit; there will be a lock installed on it and the water source will be installed," according to Town Clerk Patti Gordon. "The contract with Hudson Headwaters Health Network for the mobile health unit site agreement has been updated. The contract now holds each other equally responsible, not just the town."

In a previous regular meeting, Town Supervisor John Rozell asked board members if they wanted to move forward on the contract with Hudson Headwaters Health Network for the mobile health unit. Councilman Timothy Kingsley asked if the town was required to provide anything besides water and electric. Supervisor Rozell replied Whitehall would be required to plow and salt the site, as well.

The $400,000 mobile health unit is a customized 40-foot vehicle equipped as a primary care medical office and certified as such by the U.S. Department of Health (DOH) and HRSA. It has two fully equipped examination rooms, a registration area, point-of-care testing area, a lab draw station and a bathroom. It includes the same medical equipment as a traditional primary care health center, such as examination tables, a scale, equipment to obtain vital signs and provide vision screening. It will be staffed by a family nurse practitioner, nurse and a medical assistant, according to Hudson Headwaters spokeswoman Jane Hooper.

According to Hudson Headwaters CEO Dr. Tucker Slingerland, mobile health is the network's latest initiative to expand access to care. "It is very fitting that we move forward with this innovative care delivery model at the beginning of Hudson Headwaters' 40th year" Dr. Slingerland said. "The same high-quality care that communities have come to expect at our health centers is now on wheels."

Their mobile unit visits Salem on Mondays and Tuesdays. They expect their second mobile unit to arrive next year, to provide greater access.

Hooper cautioned patience for prospective Whitehall patients. "Receiving approval from HRSA is simply the first step required to establish our mobile health center (or any health center, for that matter) within a particular community." But, much legwork has already been done and that should speed the arrival of the mobile clinic to town.

HRSA spokesman Scott Kodish confirmed his agency approved, in June, the application Hudson Headwaters submitted to add a mobile health unit to their service area. Town officials have worked diligently to advance the project and Community Health Centers of Rutland have voiced enthusiastic endorsement of the plan to site a mobile clinic here. It would seem it's all over but the crying.

Small rural communities like Whitehall are usually considered underserved for health care. This supplemental care will be an asset to the community because it will increase health care provider access and, as a HRSA-funded group, they are required to treat all patients. Even patients who are not able to pay or have no insurance.

"HRSA-funded health care centers deliver affordable, accessible, quality, and cost-effective primary health care services to patients regardless of their ability to pay," Kodish said. "HRSA-supported health centers advance a model of comprehensive and patient-centered care, coordinating a wide range of medical, dental, mental health, substance use disorder, and patient support services in areas where economic or geographic barriers limit access to affordable health care services.