Buncombe to vote on $628K disease-fighting mobile unit. Here's what it looks like.

ASHEVILLE - Buncombe County wants to spend nearly $630,000 on a mobile unit that will take the fight to the streets against diseases, something county health leaders think could be a permanent part of local wellness response in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Buncombe County Board of Commissioners at its March 1 meeting will vote on what’s called a "communicable disease and infection prevention mobile team," run by the Health and Human Services department.

According to Matthews Specialty Vehicles' renderings provided to the Citizen Times by Buncombe spokesperson Stacey Wood, the mobile unit itself is a truck-like vehicle with a walk-in clinic in the body.

Not only would this effort include the purchase and outfitting of equipment ― which commissioners already have approved for the 2022 budget ― it would also employ a team of six professionals: one public health nurse supervisor, two public health nurses, two emergency management specialists and one administrative support associate.  

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Altogether the unit would cost Buncombe $628,114, money set to come from state allocations for communicable disease support for local health departments.

Public health says the money ultimately will help go toward expanding “communicable disease surveillance, detection, control and prevention activities.”

Speaking on upcoming needs for the BCHHS, Public Health Director Stacie Saunders in a recent interview said mobility during the pandemic has been one key to bringing COVID-19 resources to the public to supplement services at the 40 Coxe Ave. clinic.

“When the vaccine became available, not only did we have a fixed site, we also had mobile vaccination opportunities,” Saunders said.

“Mobilization of our services during COVID have been pretty much a standard, but one of the things that many local health departments don’t have are true mobile units to do that work. So, you piecemeal that together in the moment until you have an opportunity where funding applies. We were able to use funding to purchase a mobile unit.”

Saunders said it will likely be in Buncombe toward the end of the current fiscal year, which is July 31, or the beginning of the new one.

In January, Saunders and public health were engineering the team they will request March 1 from county spending.

But she said BCHHS envisioned the mobile “framework” as a flexible model that could address more than just fighting communicable diseases.

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“Yes, we could use it for COVID testing and COVID vaccines, but we could also use it for community outreach when it comes to food insecurity and nutrition. We could use it for other communicable disease outbreaks and awareness and other immunization efforts when it comes to childhood needs. Lots of great possibilities.”

She noted the possibility of making these units part of a “permanent infrastructure” when it comes to county health response measures.

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The move to hire more people to run this sort of unit comes after the county, according to Saunders, has been “using a lot of contract staffing” during the pandemic. That was because of surges in COVID-19 and sudden needs.

The new staff of six would be more permanent, however.

“It’s a bit of a miniature clinic on wheels,” Saunders said, describing what the unit may look like once it’s ready. It will have multiple spaces inside and awnings that can be set up around the unit outside, emphasizing its potential versatility.

“We are very flexible and nimble,” Saunders said of public health departments across North Carolina. She said many people at BCHHS during the pandemic have played a part in addressing COVID-19 needs locally, in addition to their regular job description.

Buncombe, like other departments, has used state and federal help to address surge needs, Saunders said, specifically around testing and vaccination needs.

The new mobile isn’t the only on-the-go program Buncombe is supporting.

In November, commissioners approved a $500,000 Dogwood Health Trust grant funding a medication assisted treatment (MAT) team, made of four paramedics and one support coordinator.

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 “This means there’s a mobile unit available to go anywhere at any time to meet people where they are to begin MAT treatment,” said Commissioner Jasmine-Beach Ferrara in a recent interview, discussing Buncombe’s mobile team expansion.

“This is a really critical step forward because it eliminates the gaps that are happening. Someone might say, ‘Yeah, I’m willing to give that at try,’ and then they can’t get an appointment for three days. It’s a huge step.”

Buncombe in its individual efforts to mobilize health and treatment response joins the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services which is also investing in mobile units. NCDHHS announced in a December release it would put $4.4 million in 15 mobile units across the state.

"Meeting people where they are, especially in our rural communities, is a key priority and critical to responding to this crisis," Chief Deputy Secretary for Health Kody H. Kinsley said in a statement.

The money went to care organizations Eastpointe, Partners Health Management and Trillium Health Resources. The mobile units would go out to the communities those organizations served, according to the release.

Andrew Jones is Buncombe County government and health care reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA TODAY Network. Reach him at @arjonesreports on Facebook and Twitter, 828-226-6203 or arjones@citizentimes.com. Please help support this type of journalism with a subscription to the Citizen Times.