Solving transit barriers: New mobile clinic reaches Kootenai, Bonner and Shoshone counties
RAY ERKU | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 4 weeks, 1 day AGO
No need to travel. Just reach out and medical service is in your driveway.
A specialized mobile wound care service is helping connect patients to treatment without visiting hospitals in Coeur d’Alene or Spokane.
Called North Idaho Wound Care, the Coeur d’Alene-based service especially caters to homebound seniors, veterans and individuals with limited mobility. Provider and nurse practitioner Jennifer Stallings said their ailments, whether diabetic ulcers or vascular wounds, are exacerbated “by the inability to get to the clinic.”
According to North Idaho Wound Care, the “silent” diabetic foot ulcer deadens nerve endings, allowing unnoticed cuts or blisters to develop into deep tissue ulcers rapidly.
“A lot of these wounds are found on the feet, they can’t feel it,” Stallings said. “I’m just trying to provide a service that’s floundered recently.”
North Idaho Wound Care provides advanced, evidence-based therapies directly to patients at home in Kootenai, Bonner and Shoshone counties, stretching as far north as Sandpoint. Its special modalities include bedside debridement, bioengineered skin substitutes, cellular tissue products and negative pressure wound therapy.
In North Idaho, rural residents sometimes need to drive 30 minutes to over an hour to get medical treatment. Since launching in May, however, North Idaho Wound Care has provided over 500 services.
Idaho itself, with 88% of it considered rural, has seen mobile clinical and health services increase to reach these clients.
“We’ve had a good rate of growth in such a short amount of time,” said Ben Stallings, director of clinical administration. “We’ve taken on an exceptional amount of patients since launching.”
Ben said North Idaho Wound Care rolls up to a patient’s house, where they can run labs and send them off for results.
Ben also said patients can seek care at North Idaho Wound with a referral from their primary care provider. Patients can use cash, Medicare, Medicaid or most major commercial insurance.
In addition to Jennifer and Ben, North Idaho Wound includes a licensed practical nurse for the Shoshone County area, a medical assistant and a receptionist. The Stallingses said they look to add another medical provider later this winter.
Jennifer herself is a wound care specialist who delivers advanced patient-centered treatment for complex and chronic wounds, according to her background. She combines clinical expertise with innovative therapies to improve healing outcomes across outpatient, hospital and skilled nursing settings. Through her work, she focuses on reducing complications, preventing hospitalizations, and elevating the standard of wound care.
“I just felt like it was a challenge and I wanted to do it,” she said of launching North Idaho Wound Care. “I just enjoy wounds.”
For more information, visit https://northidahowoundcare.com/ or call them at 208-518-9193.
Medical supplies for North Idaho Wound Care.
Nurse practitioner Jennifer Stallings stands next to her mobile clinic, North Idaho Wound Care.ARTICLES BY RAY ERKU
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