Three Rivers Hospital acquired a 2022 Freightliner custom mobile medical clinic from East Adams Rural Healthcare. It will begin seeing patients in Twisp as early as November.
Some healthcare services provided at Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster will be available in the Methow Valley, after the hospital opens a mobile clinic at Aero Methow Rescue Service in Twisp.
Three Rivers hopes to roll out the Three Rivers Mobile Clinic in November, Maria Christina Monroe, the hospital’s public relations director, said at a Sept. 24 Methow Valley School Board meeting.
The clinic’s schedule had not been finalized as of Monday (Oct. 5), but the hospital anticipates siting it at Aero Methow, 1005 Highway 20, one week a month for three days, Three Rivers Business Development Coordinator Jennifer Best said.
The mobile clinic is intended to make healthcare more accessible to people who don’t live near Three Rivers Hospital or Three Rivers Family Medicine in Brewster.
“The program is currently being developed, including determining which services will be offered, where the mobile clinic will make stops, and what days and times will be most useful for community members,” a hospital press release said.
The clinic is tentatively scheduled to make regular stops in Twisp and Mansfield.
In recent years, Aero Methow has seen an increase in the number of non-emergency calls that don’t require ambulance transport to a hospital. Such non-transport calls are not reimbursed by the patient’s insurance and have increased Aero Methow’s cost burden, Executive Director Derek Van Marter has said.
“While the mobile clinic may, in the end, result in a reduction of non-emergent 911 calls, the real motivation to offer our Twisp station as a landing space is to increase access to healthcare resources in the valley, and facilitate partnership across the healthcare continuum,” Van Marter said in an email.
“My hope is that the mobile clinic is additive to what already exists in the community, and maybe they are able to pick up some community members that are currently falling through the cracks,” Van Marter added.
The community is invited to participate in an online survey to help determine the hours of operation for the mobile clinic, and the services it will provide. The survey is open through mid-October at brewsterclinic.org/mobile-clinic/survey.
The unit includes a patient lift, a check-in area, patient examination spaces, medical supplies, laboratory/work areas and restrooms. It was funded by a grant from the federal Disproportionate Share Hospital program for facilities that serve large numbers of Medicaid and uninsured patients.
The public is invited to a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the mobile clinic, 9 a.m. Friday (Oct. 9) at Three Rivers Hospital, 507 Hospital Way, Brewster.
