UC Davis Health starts new mobile urgent care program for some vulnerable patients
SACRAMENTO – UC Davis Health is teaming up with Dispatch Health for the nation's first comprehensive "in-home" medical care for patients – the same day they need.
"The thought process was how we can make care more convenient for our patients," said Dr. Vimal Mishra with UC Davis Health.
Starting on Tuesday, the medical center now has a team fielding calls and dispatching medical teams in urgent care mobile units to patients' homes.
"We are providing that urgent care level care at the patient's bedside rather than asking patients to go to an urgent care," Mishra said.
In back on the units, they have everything they need to treat a variety of medical conditions from severe to non-severe – everything from fever, respiratory infections, wound care, to congestive heart failure.
The program is meant to provide quicker access to in-person medical care to their more vulnerable patients.
"We have a lot of patients who are elderly, who are homebound and who do not have access like a normal person would. But they do need support when they are sick," Mishra said.
Access to care comes on a referral basis. A patient must call their primary care physician within UC Davis Health where they will be connected to this nurse triage team. If care is needed, patients can stay home and wait for a physician to get there.
Dr. Mishra says this is also a way around waiting for an appointment and will cut down on unnecessary emergency room visits.
"This is another way to support patients because they don't have options when they are sick," Mishra said. "They may not have an appointment available, but this way they can get the care they need."
So far, the mobile care units have seen dozens of patients within just the past few days of it starting. They say if this program continues to be successful, there is talk they could expand it in the future.
