Clear Choice Clinic gets mobile unit for rural areas
A new health-care resource rolled onto the scene at the Clear Choice Clinic in Kalispell Thursday with the arrival of its new mobile clinic.
Aimed at expanding the reach and accessibility of the clinic’s services, the mobile unit will travel to communities outside of Flathead County, offering the same services as the brick and mortar location.
Clear Choice Clinic, established in Kalispell in 2007, offers free and affordable sexual health-care services and information for both men and women, including sexually transmitted disease testing and treatment, pregnancy testing, limited ultrasound and pregnancy options education.
Though it falls under the umbrella of Hope Pregnancy Ministries, Clear Choice Clinic operates as a separate, non-faith-based health-care provider free of judgment or bias, according to Hope Pregnancy Ministries Executive Director Michelle Reimer.
Due to the lack of sexual health resources in more rural areas, the mobile unit will partner with pregnancy centers in areas such as Libby, Eureka, Polson and Browning to provide clinical services.
“Those are areas that we get calls from where people say ‘I need your services, but I can’t get there,’” Reimer said.
The mobile clinic’s travel schedule will evolve as the needs of each community emerge and appointment times fill, but Reimer said the unit will offer walk-in appointments at each location.
Custom-designed to suit the specific needs of a Montanan mobile health clinic, the vehicle was built on a Ford F-650 Quad Cab chassis, providing extra protection and durability to accommodate travel hazards including ice, deer, rough mountain roads and inclement weather.
The clinic portion of the vehicle comprises approximately 30 feet of the total 42-foot length.
Inside, the spacious exam and patient interview areas closely resemble the bright interior of the Kalispell clinic, complete with an exam table and ultrasound station, bathroom and slide-out seating area.
A joint project between Clear Choice Clinic in Kalispell and Life Net of Missoula, the mobile unit will travel between locations every other week.
The Missoula center, Reimer said, offers most of the same services and resources to its service area as Clear Choice offers in Kalispell, making it an ideal partner in serving two regions with one unit.
“For now, the partnership feels like it’s a great way to kind of dip our toe in the water and see if there’s enough need…out there in the outlying communities,” Reimer said.
Since launching its vision for the shared mobile unit a year ago, Clear Choice and Life Net have shared the responsibilities of fundraising and, together with their donors, raised the total funding goal within the last 12 months.
A third of the funding for the $300,000 unit came from the Gianforte Family Foundation, which endorsed the pilot program for the state to test the viability of a shared mobile clinic between the two regions.
Other major donors included Nomad Global Communication Solutions, the custom vehicle company in Columbia Falls that produced the one-of-a kind vehicle at a discounted rate, and the Knights of Columbus, a Catholic fraternity with chapters across the country.
The final cost of the unit to Clear Choice Clinic came to just under $60,000, Reimer said.
Once the unit hits the road later this spring, Reimer said patients in the outlying communities of Northwest Montana will be able to call a general number to be directed to their local resources and set up an appointment with the mobile clinic the next time it visits their area.
For more information about Clear Choice Clinic, visit https://www.clearchoiceclinic.com/ or call 406-257-5700.
Reporter Mary Cloud Taylor can be reached at 758-4459 or mtaylor@dailyinterlake.com.