Mobile isolation units to treat COVID-19 patients

CANTON, Miss. (WLBT) - A central Mississippi healthcare clinic brings in new resources to help treat COVID-19 patients.

The G. A. Carmichael Family Health Center in Canton is bringing in four mobile isolation units to its facility.

The units will be used to treat, vaccinate, and isolate patients.

“The idea of having mobile, deployable, relocatable, medical care is a huge advantage,” said Roger Krulak, president and founder of FullStack Modular, the company that created the units.

Krulak said he first got the vision to create a mobile healthcare center after seeing the battles many clinics are facing due to the pandemic. 

“Necessity is the mother of invention,” said Krulak. “We were talking to hospitals and clinics in New York and said what’s your problem. They said we don’t have enough hospital beds. So I’m like, well what if we can create a hospital bed and you can put it on a truck and take it somewhere and re-deploy it, and then when you don’t need it, move it somewhere else.”

After hearing about that concept, the G. A. Carmichael Family Health Center quickly jumped on board.

“Once they are up and running, people will actually be able to go directly to these units instead of coming into the building,” said Dr. James Coleman, chief executive officer at the clinic. “We will fully staff them with a nurse, a MA(medical assistant), and a front desk receptionist. It has a lobby area so it’ll be its own self-contained building. "

Dr. Coleman said one of the reasons for bringing in the mobile units is to separate COVID-19 patients from regular sick patients.

“It’s really going to help get more testing done in a faster way so that people can know their results,” said Dr. Coleman. “People can come in and not have to wait a long time because we will have four rooms versus one.”

Each unit has negative pressure installed, meaning if someone is infected, that air won’t go into the other room.

Dr. Coleman said the mobile healthcare centers are funded through Cares Act funding, and this is the first time the units are being used anywhere in the country.

“We’ll be up and running Monday morning at 8 o’clock,” said Dr. Coleman.

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