One of the major challenges for health care in America is patient access, particularly in rural areas.
Augusta Health is meeting that challenge with its Mobile Medical Unit, which the community celebrated Thursday afternoon with a ribbon cutting in Fishersville.
“This moment of a Mobile Medical Unit is not just an opening of a new vehicle, but it’s the opening of possibility,” said Augusta Health Director of Public and Primary Care Services Isaac Izzillo.
Izzillo spoke at the ribbon cutting and expressed gratitude toward the community.
“We took something from concept to implementation to expansion, and now we are reimagining care for our community with our Mobile Medical Unit,” Izzillo said.
Fundraising began in April 2024 to make the mobile unit a reality.
“This clinic would not be standing without your belief in what we’re doing. You didn’t just fund a new medical mobile unit. You invested in the prevention, you invested in the people, you invested in our communities. So, regardless of zip code, income or circumstance, everyone deserves care and, most importantly, respect,” he said.
The mobile unit will serve patients who lack transportation in the cities of Staunton, Waynesboro and Harrisonburg, and Augusta and Highland counties.
“We are just overcome with gratitude from the community, for the community for your support of this wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, as one man called it today, “RV.” I think it’s a little bit more than that. To support the healthcare and the wellbeing of our community,” Augusta Health Foundation Board Chair Debbie Callison said.
She said that Thursday afternoon was an opportunity to hold a ribbon cutting, but also to recognize the community’s support for the mobile unit. Partnerships included the Community Foundation of the Central Blue Ridge, the Cabbell Foundation, the Houff Charitable Foundation and the Augusta Health Women’s Giving Circle.
According to Callison, the mobile unit will enable Augusta Health to strengthen its mission and bring life-changing technology and innovation into communities at 17 sites throughout the Shenandoah Valley.
But, the name Augusta Health on the mobile unit only has meaning behind it because the community supports the healthcare the van will provide.
Augusta Health President and CEO Mary Mannix said the occasion was a celebration of what it means for the community. She commented on the fact that so many members of the community were in attendance for the ribbon cutting.
“As you can see right here, this mobile clinic is really more than just a vehicle. It’s a symbol. It’s a symbol of our commitment to closing the gaps in access to care and bringing health care services directly to people who need them most,” Mannix said.
Capacity became stretched for hospitals like Augusta Health throughout the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, and access to care remains a top challenge in the Valley and everywhere else in the nation.
“So, at Augusta Health, access is not just a sidebar conversation,” Mannix said. “It’s really central to our mission and it’s a key priority.”
The hospital, one of only five independently-owned in the country, has a “laser focus on bringing care to where people live” and, therefore, a “deep sense of purpose.” Mannix said the mobile unit represents “a better path forward for health care for Americans” and she hopes that care models like the mobile unit are recognized in conversations in Washington, D.C.
The idea for a mobile unit to reach patients in the community who lack transportation was that of Dr. Clint Merritt, Augusta Health‘s chief physician executive, in September 2022. He said he realized that the hospital was not reaching certain members of the local population, such as a growing Hispanic community and members of the community at the Valley Mission in Staunton.
“We had been working with the homeless community for several years and it was clear that the next step was to bring primary care to sites where people are experiencing homelessness,” Merritt said.
The Mobile Medical Unit has been to 19 sites within the Valley, offered 322 different mobile site visits and 3,500 unique patient care visits. More than 1,200 individuals have been served through the mobile clinic.
Working in health care is a challenge in 2025 with colleagues taking early retirements, short staffing and burn out, but Merritt said he remains passionate about what he does.
“The work in front of us is pretty clear. We’ve set, I think, a beautiful foundation, but if you look around our community, we have higher rates of diabetes and hypertension and depression and ER visits for mental health crises, obesity than the national average and the Virginia average,” Merritt said.
Individuals living in neighborhoods near Augusta Health have a lifespan expectancy of 10 years less than the average American lifespan. They die of the same chronic diseases as everyone else but at younger ages.
“The chronic stress of poverty shortens life and we see it very specifically in our neighborhoods,” Merritt said.
He called the “beautiful mobile van” a generous gift from the community, which will enable Augusta Health to extend patient care to eight more sites in the region within the next month or two.
“Those are neighborhoods we’ve had to say no to up to this point,” Merritt said.
The mobile unit will provide patients an increased quality of care with private exam rooms and ease the work of team members who usually have to load equipment and materials into vehicles, drive and unload what they need to provide patient care, then load back up and drive back to Augusta Health.
“This will make that so much easier,” Merritt said.
A schedule of locations, dates and times where the Mobile Medical Unit will be is available online.
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Rebecca Barnabi
