Mobile Medical Clinics in the United States Post-Affordable Care Act: An Integrative Review

Despite changes brought about by the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA), millions of individuals are still unable to access health care in the United States. Mobile medical clinics have been an invisible force of care delivery for vulnerable and marginalized populations for decades; however, little is known about their impact post-ACA. Guided by the Anderson Behavioral Model, the purpose of this article was to review and critique the state of the current literature about mobile medical clinics in the United States since 2010. Following Whittemore and Knafl's integrative review methodology, the search was conducted in 6 databases and delivered 1934 results; 341 articles were removed as duplicates. Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, 2 independent reviewers screened and adjudicated the remaining titles, abstracts, and full-texts, yielding 12 articles in the final review. The Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) was used to evaluate the quality of the articles. Studies revealed variation in quality, study design, and location; and diversity of chronic diseases and populations addressed (eg, children with asthma, complementary alternative medicine use with children, adults with diabetes and hypertension, patients with chronic disease with an emphasis on the patient experience, utilization patterns in migrant farmers). Mobile medical clinics provide care for the prevention, treatment, and management of chronic illness and their wide geographic spread confirms their broad use across the United States. They provide a return on investment through emergency room avoidance, decreasing hospital length of stay, and improving chronic disease management.