03/18/2013
Mini Mobile Screening Unit
This is in response to a question posed by David Risley asking for info on the Mini Mobile Screening Unit.
The concept of the "Mini Mobile" is a Well's Cargo style trailer, geared up with all the equipment necessary to perform similar functions as the full side unit. One big difference is that the equipment would have to be unloaded from the trailer and set up at the screening site, then re-loaded at the end of the event.
The concept, at least as it exists today, is for NWLFSH to source the units and equipment, then hand it over to a qualifying club, Zone, District, or possibly even a Foundation such as the Clark County Sight or Clark County Hearing Foundations in Vancouver. The receiving entity would, in effect, own it and be responsible for scheduling, storage, transportation, and maintenance of the equipment and the trailer itself. The recipient of the first unit will be the Pullman Lions Club.
We don't have all of the answers yet since this is the first of its kind for our Foundation, so the first one will help us refine the on-going protocol. The hope is that if this program is successful, it will be the first of many within our coverage area.
Clearly there is a need but the one larger unit simply can't fill 100% of of it due in large part to scheduling availability based upon club requests weather in the winter time that limits use of the self contained unit to places and times of year where there is no snow in higher elevations. The mini unit will give us a new mechanism, and it permanently puts the unit in a particular coverage area so these two limitations are no longer an issue.
One important point to make is that the larger unit will still be available to all clubs based upon the scheduling criteria we already have in place today. If a club or region is also supported by a mini unit, they are not excluded from scheduling the larger unit. This is a very important aspect of the concept and we want everyone to know and understand that up front.
To give perspective, the Oregon Lions Sight and Hearing Foundation has several of these units within their coverage area, along with one larger main unit. They have found the smaller units to be a very successful platform for screening very large numbers of people in a very short period of time. They've proven the model works, and we are learning as much from them as we can since they already have a defined a very effective model.
Our first mini mobile unit is already in the process being setup for delivery hopefully by the end of April of this year. It's an exciting accomplishment, one that everyone at the Foundation sees as a great step forward in our efforts to serve.
