UMC 1.6 FOR PRIMARY HEALTH CARE

Since 2013, we have been developing and optimizing a design known as “The Universal Mobile Clinic” (UMC) registered. There are now over 35 mobile clinics currently on the road or in production. These specialised vehicles form part of a wide initiative to bring health care to people who may not normally have access to the kind of health care services they need. This includes primary health care and social services for marginalized or homeless populations, as well as harm reduction services for people experiencing substance abuse.

The latest design iteration of this initiative is the “UMC model #1.6”. The design was finalized in 2022, and there are now many of these mobile units that have been built and are in use across Canada.

The UMC model 1.6 is an efficient and versatile mobile health clinic consisting of a modular “kit of parts” installed in an affordable, maneuverable, and modestly sized vehicle that provides for a wide range of healthcare needs.

All UMC components are designed and built to be highly durable and cleanable. Measuring 8 square meters, these architect-designed mobile clinics are having a huge positive impact in the communities they serve. The UMC models are greatly facilitating the health care outreach work done by a rapidly growing list of organizations across Canada.

An effective design solution to a dual problem: health care access and cost

Many health care organizations would like to have a mobile clinic to satisfy their outreach health care access objectives, however budget limitations in the health care sector have often impeded them from fulfilling these objectives. By creating a relatively affordable mobile clinic design with optimal space efficiency in mind, the UMC model 1.6 has opened the door to a rapidly growing list of health care organizations who are now able to fulfill their health care outreach goals economically.

Since larger bus-sized or box truck sized mobile clinics are often beyond the means of community based health care organizations, we made it our mission to design a high-quality mobile clinic in a van, thereby reducing capital costs and ongoing vehicle maintenance expenses. Working closely with health car providers, we came to understand the workflows and treatment scenarios used in primary health care outreach and developed an optimal design solution with a two-room layout: a consultation space and an examination room.

In order to fit these two rooms into a van format, we have developed an extremely space-efficient solution using an integrated design approach that resolves issues such as the absorption of the wheel-well volumes into the built-in storage units and the accommodation of the autonomous power system beneath the seating.

Unique aspects

The UMC 1.6 contains several unique features. Achieving this meant going back to first principles so as not to be confined to previous precedents or assumptions. For example, a fully functional examination table was designed from scratch so as to:

  • be narrow enough to allow adjacent circulation,

  • absorb a wheel well into its volume,

  • contain the heating system,

  • maximize built-in storage compartments, and

  • accommodate the curved walls of the van so that the back-rest can be angled up without contacting the wall finish.

An important and unique quality of the design is that we devised a tworoom primary health care mobile clinic within a van. The vast majority of other mobile clinic designs around the world are not space-efficient enough to achieve this. Mobile clinics with more than one room usually require much bigger and by extension, more expensive vehicles. Also, a high capacity autonomous power system is integrated that supports activities for a full day without resorting to a noisy, fuel powered generator.

Autonomous power system

The UMC 1.6 comes equipped with an autonomous power system that is sufficient for accomplishing an entire day’s work. Lighting, air conditioning, 110v power outlets for computers and medical equipment, as well as USB charging ports, allow the users to function as if they were in a building connected to a power grid. Recent developments in battery and inverter technology have opened the door to the creation of this compact power system, which is all concealed under the visitor’s bench in the reception area.

Looking forward to the future

Studies have shown that mobile health clinic initiatives in general have reduced overall hospital visits, reduced lengths of hospital stays, and reduced overall health care costs. People seeking medical attention are often fragile to begin with, particularly homeless populations where individuals may already have had negative experiences with conventional health care institutions, police or paramedics. In the case of First Nations communities, trust and reconciliation are often a work in progress. Therefore, the mobile clinic was designed to reflect the objectives of outreach healthcare providers, and this hinges on building positive feelings of trust, confidence, and optimism, through design.

By applying the skills of an architect towards the development of an efficient and versatile mobile health clinic model, access to primary health care has been significantly improved for people in remote areas and marginalized populations.

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