Mobile Clinics Improve Rural Health

5G Connectivity for Mobile Clinics Improves Rural Health

Connectivity Solutions Improve Patient Outcomes in Rural Communities

When it comes to healthcare, time is of the essence. Routine care, such as annual physicals, dental exams, or same-day sick appointments, should always happen as quickly and with as much accuracy as possible. Unfortunately, getting most Americans to attend their routine appointments can be a hassle, but when individuals must travel long distances to get there, it’s even more challenging.

With the closure of more than one hundred rural hospitals and some patients needing to travel and hour or more to receive care from the nearest providers, the health of those within our rural communities suffering.

The Challenge

Healthcare in Rural Areas Isn’t Readily Accessible

To ensure the health of your community, it’s essential to make quality healthcare as accessible as possible. Unfortunately, in rural areas, that is becoming increasingly more difficult as hospitals and clinics are closing for myriad reasons. Between 2010 and 2021, nearly 140 rural hospitals closed, leaving entire communities at a loss.

There were many reasons for the closings; in some cases, hospitals were faced with staffing shortages, while in others, they were faced with low patient volume. But regardless of the cause, closures mean there are now individuals and families who cannot get their most basic healthcare needs met without traveling a considerable distance.

Solution Overview

Bringing Healthcare Into The Community via Mobile Clinics

In an effort to make healthcare more accessible to rural communities, some hospitals and clinics are taking their show on the road. Care providers are now using mobile health clinics to bring routine and specialty care directly into communities to help make healthcare more accessible and affordable. According to the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University, mobile health clinics prevented over 600 emergency room visits per year while offering $12 saved for every $1 spent to operate the clinic.

Mobile Health Clinics for general and specialized medical applications are outfitted with vehicle networking solutions that enable connectivity to HIPAA-Compliant electronic healthcare records (EHR) and electronic patient care records (EPCR). Utilizing a wireless 5G router paired with a rugged external vehicle antenna from USAT — like the Cradlepoint R1900 and Mobile Mark LTMWG943 or the AirLink XR80 and 10-in-1 Dome Antenna — healthcare organizations can deploy solutions that meet their mobile connectivity needs.

The purpose-built cellular routers allow live video streaming and data offloading and have the ability to host VPN connections, thus removing a step from field personnel. As a result, care providers can efficiently and securely use voice, video, and data services to coordinate and share documentation with patients, other providers, and insurance companies and, if needed - confer with colleagues off-site.

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Our Team

Device Provisioning, Activation and Installation Services

USAT serves the critical infrastructure of healthcare providers by creating secure communication networks that pass data wirelessly between key systems - linking remote and mobile medical facilities, personnel, and machine assets. The USAT team sells, designs, configures, and installs wireless data communications hardware and software, providing targeted IoT connectivity solutions that fit our clients' exacting needs.

The Download

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