Cass Family Clinic in Cassopolis has unveiled a new way to reach patients who might have trouble accessing medical services on their own.

Clinic CEO Joe Gavin tells us they held a ribbon cutting on Tuesday for the new Mobile Health Clinic, a 40-foot RV that’s been converted into a full service medical office. The plan is to staff the clinic with nurse practitioners and physician’s assistants and go around Cass, Van, Buren, and Berrien counties to reach those in need.

“We intend to get into smaller communities that have very little primary care presence, if any,” Gavin said. “We’re looking at communities such as Union and Jones and Vandalia, Marcellus, up into Decatur, and then maybe as far as Three Oaks in Berrien County.”

Niles could also be served.

The Mobile Health Clinic will offer health and wellness exams, sports physicals, substance abuse therapy, blood pressure checks, flu vaccinations, and patient education wherever it goes. Gavin says they intend to take the clinic to high-visibility areas.

“It’ll be out four days a week, year-round. We’ll be going to schools, we’ll be going to churches, we’ll be going to apartment complexes, different neighborhoods, mobile home parks, wherever we can get permission to set up and be there routinely.”

Cass Family Clinic has been planning the mobile unit for about a year. It’ll be at the Council on Aging in Cassopolis on Tuesday from 9 to 3.

Gavin says they’d like a combination of appointments and walk-in patients as the clinic gets rolling throughout Southwest Michigan in the coming weeks.