Maggie McKay (Host): How convenient would it be if healthcare came to you? Today, Chief Operating Officer at Jefferson Healthcare, Jake Davidson, is here to tell us about the innovation and access that is their mobile health clinic.

Welcome to To Your Health, a podcast presented by Jefferson Healthcare. I'm your host, Maggie McKay. Thank you so much for making the time to be here, Jake. I can't wait to hear more about this.

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Yeah. Maggie, I'm excited to share a little more about this cool thing we got going on.

Host: So, Jefferson Healthcare is developing a mobile health clinic. What exactly is it?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Yeah. So basically, we are converting an RV into a clinic space. And so, we have a company that is helping us design it right now, and they will soon be converting that RV into exactly the space that we want. So, pretty excited. Then, we're going to have the ability to, you know, move it around from location to location and provide care out of it.

Host: And so, what locations would you be going to?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Right now, our focus is some of the more remote locations, especially where we don't have clinics or unique clinics. And so, our friends down with Brennan, Quilcene, and then Hadlock, Chimicum areas as well, basically, again, areas that we don't have a spot and be able to use it to take it to where the people are at.

Host: So, it sounds terrific. What prompted Jefferson Healthcare to add this resource in addition to the fact that a lot of people maybe can't get to you?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Yeah. You know, one of the cool things that we've done here is opening a dental clinic. You know, we were the first hospital-owned dental clinic in the state of Washington. And we thought we knew what the demand was going to be, but it's been significantly bigger. And so, we've looked at avenues to increase more dental capacity. And one of those avenues was this dental mobile. So, the Washington State Department of Health is funding majority of it, to ensure that we have access to dental care. And so, we're thrilled to be able to expand the dental service that we provide with this mobile unit.

Host: Well there's so much potential here, it just sounds amazing. How do you decide what kinds of services to offer in the mobile clinic?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Of course, number one, we want to expand our dental clinic. And so, that's the first priority with it. We've had three different community forums. We went to Brennan, we went to Quilcene, and we went to Port Hadlock and gathered feedback. Thank you to those that came. And then, we also, you know, looked at what we're able to do with it as far as under the state guidelines with it. And so, dental, of course. We're looking at primary care, so doing immunizations, sports physicals, behavioral health. So, we're still interested in, you know, learning what the community would like. And so, we can still collect feedback. Just email us marketing at jeffersonhealthcare.org. And, you know, I think those are what we're going to start with, but I'm sure we'll expand it into far more things. It just gives us an opportunity that we've never had, basically a clinic on wheels.

Host: What kind of feedback did you get?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: That dental was high priority. Primary care was a high priority and just the excitement about, you know, having a clinic down in Brennan, having a dental clinic in Quilcene and in Port Hadlock, just having something that's closer to home.

Host: And how long will it stay? Let's say it visits a certain community, is it there for like a week or a day, or how does that work?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: It's probably looking at a day, but it just depends. You know, I think if we're working with a school district and, say, right before school starts or as school starts that, you know, if we do a couple days of immunizations and sports physicals, you know, I think it just depends on where the demand is and where the partnerships that we build drive this work. We're flexible.

So, part of it is it is a rural health clinic, and so we have to post it basically a month in advance. So, we will have that all decided, but I think the exciting thing about it for us is just the flexibility. There's a fair or something, you know, being able to go there for a couple of days, basically just being able to be as mobile as possible with it

Host: I wonder if it becomes so popular, which it sounds like it will, and there's a need for it, if you'll get additional mobile clinics?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: You never know. I think that's the exciting thing about Jefferson Healthcare is we're always looking for areas and ways to grow. You know, I think if the demand continues to outweigh the supply, we're always going to look at, you know, how can we continue to provide that service? I mean, I think our building, as we've talked before, is a great example of just continuing to find services that we know that we can do locally and do them well. And then, building out a building, building out a mobile unit, doing whatever it takes to bring those services to our community. This is no different.

Host: And Jake, when will the mobile clinic be ready to roam in East jefferson County?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: We're almost finished with the design and finalizing the contract. So, the bill will take somewhere between 16 and 20 weeks. We have our internal folks working through, you know, things like, you know, how do you get internet to it? Who's going to drive it? Things like that. But I think best case scenario, we're hopeful that we'll be operational in early 2025. So, look for it in January of 2025.

Host: That's a great way to start the new year.

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: It absolutely is.

Host: How can people find out more? Like, is there a website?

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Yeah, absolutely. Go to our website, jeffersonhealthcare.org. Our marketing team does a great job of updating, you know, all the different projects we have going on. So, this I believe has its own page, so go there, email them. Again, marketing at jeffersonhealthcare.org. Learn about our mobile unit, learn about our new building, and all the new services we have coming.

Host: Thank you so much for sharing this information. I can't wait to hear the update once it gets rolling.

Jacob "Jake" Davidson, MHA: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Maggie. This is always enjoyable to share what we're doing with all the community.

Host: Again, that's Jefferson Healthcare COO, Jake Davidson. To find out more, you can go to jeffersonhealthcare.org. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you. I'm Maggie McKay. Thanks for listening to To Your Health, a podcast from Jefferson Healthcare.