G-Health Enterprises and Endeavor Health are expanding their partnership with a new mobile unit.

The two organizations have launched a 37-foot RV unit with two exam rooms to increase access in targeted ZIP codes across Erie County, said Dr. Raul Vazquez, president and CEO at G-Health.

“We want to make sure we are addressing as many barriers to health as possible for our community,” he said, “and if they cannot get to a doctor or hospital, we want to meet them where they are.”

The mobile unit follows the opening last year of an Endeavor behavioral health clinic co-located inside Urban Family Practice, a Buffalo primary care practice on Niagara Street that is part of G-Health.

Mobile units have been in use across Western New York for several years to provide access to health care:

• This spring, Urban Family Practice partnered with United Healthcare to provide Covid-19 testing using the insurer’s mobile unit.

• Planned Parenthood of Central & Western New York late last year replaced its mobile unit with a Winnebago unit to provide reproductive health and primary care throughout its service area in Western and Central New York. The unit is also used part-time by Neighborhood Health Center for primary care services.

• Windsong Radiology Group provides mobile breast cancer screening services and mobile mammography with an RV unit it introduced in 2018.

• BestSelf Behavioral Health has two mobile RV units and four SUV units that provide access to treatment and mental health counseling for individuals with opiate addictions.

The new unit for G-Health and Endeavor, heated for year-round use, will focus on preventative treatments and screenings for things like high blood pressure, cancer and diabetes. Other services will include mental health services, immunizations, primary care, urgent care and Covid-19 testing.

That could be especially handy if the region is hit with a second outbreak of virus cases in later fall or winter, Vazquez said.

“God forbid we run into another wave in December, this can really help us manage outside the facility,” he said. “We can run primary care visits, urgent care visits and we will be doing the rapid Covid testing, which allows us to test people not only for Covid-19 but for flu or strep.”

Funding comes from the Delivery System Reform Incentive Payment (DSRIP) Medicaid program and G-Health.

Appointments online and through existing apps, where patients will be able to track the neighborhoods where the unit will be located on given days.