TROY, N.Y. >> Officials from Whitney Young Health recently announced that its mobile health unit has expanded to serve almost a dozen locations around Albany.
According to a news release, beginning with just two locations in the fall of 2016, the Whitney Young Health’s Whitney on Wheels (WOW) program has grown to serve eleven locations within the Albany area, with three more coming soon.
WOW is a mobile health unit that brings primary care services directly to patients in schools and community settings, eliminating many barriers to care.
Available to current Whitney Young Health patients, WOW offers primary and preventative health care services including routine physicals, vaccinations, health and nutrition counseling and phlebotomy services at select locations. The goal of the program is to promote overall health by making it convenient for patients to make and keep appointments.
“We are very grateful that we’re able to bring our level of quality care to even more locations throughout the city of Albany,” said Amanda Duff, Director of Community-Based Programs at Whitney Young Health. “Many of the reasons patients are unable to maintain regular healthcare visits are because they don’t have transportation or accessibility to said care. So, we’re taking away that road block and bringing the care to them.”
“The success that we’ve seen from our Whitney on Wheels program is remarkable,” added David Shippee, President and CEO of Whitney Young Health. “With the expansion to even more locations in the next few months, our ability to bring care to patients in their own neighborhoods will further our mission of providing health care to all. With the support of our community partners and schools, we are able to make this happen. We are also excited by the ability to bring accessible, quality primary care to many partner organizations in the Capital District that have traditionally provided behavioral health services to area residents, but did not have the capacity to address their patients’ primary medical care in their service sites.”
Whitney Young Health accepts most insurance plans including Medicaid, Medicare, CDPHP, MVP, Fidelis, United HealthCare and Wellcare. To be seen on Whitney on Wheels, you must be associated with the participating organization or school that WOW visits. For a complete list of locations visit wmyhealth.org/services/whitney-wheels. For more information, please contact Amanda Duff, Director of Community Based Programs, at 518-591-4479.
