Thinking about a mobile health unit to deliver services? Things to consider before buying

Purchasing a mobile unit to deliver health-care services can be an expensive undertaking for anyone interested in pursuing this option. Yet, little information is found in the literature on planning or designing such vehicles. A set of guidelines could help administrators to make better decisions regarding this approach for delivering healthcare. This article focuses on mobile health units (MHU). It provides a synthesis of the literature in addition to information from written and oral correspondence with the chief executive officers (CEO) of firms that manufacture MHU. On-site visits to agencies using an MHU were made by one of the authors (DM) to glean their perspective. The combined sources led to the development of guidelines and checklists that can assist administrators in planning the function, design and operation of an MHU to deliver health-care services to remote rural sites.