{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,10]],"date-time":"2026-09-10T00:03:12Z","timestamp":1788998592278,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":16,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"2","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1769126400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100005435","name":"Association of American Medical Colleges","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100005435","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000030","name":"Centers for Disease Control and Prevention","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000030","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000016","name":"U.S. Department of Health and Human Services","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000016","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"Family Health Council of Central Pennsylvania"},{"DOI":"10.13039\/100000045","name":"Aetna Foundation","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100000045","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"crossref"}]},{"name":"The Leon Lowenstein Foundation"},{"name":"Northeastern University"},{"name":"CDC"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["IJERPH"],"abstract":"<jats:p>This report describes the development and deployment of the Public Health Quality Tool (PHQTool), an online resource designed to help mobile health clinics (MHCs) assess and improve the quality of their public health services. MHCs provide essential clinical and public health services to underserved populations but have historically lacked tools to assess and improve the quality of their work. To address this gap, the PHQTool was developed as an online, evidence-based, self-assessment resource for MHCs, hosted on the Mobile Health Map (MHMap) platform. This report documents the collaborative development process of the PHQTool and presents preliminary evaluation findings related to usability and relevance among mobile health clinics. Drawing from national public health frameworks and Honore et al.\u2019s established public health quality aims, the PHQTool focuses on six aims most relevant to mobile care: Equitable, Health Promoting, Proactive, Transparent, Effective, and Efficient. Selection of the six quality aims was guided by explicit criteria developed through pilot testing and stakeholder feedback. The six aims were those that could be directly implemented through mobile clinic practices and were feasible to assess within diverse mobile clinic contexts. The remaining three aims (\u201cpopulation-centered,\u201d \u201crisk-reducing,\u201d and \u201cvigilant\u201d) were determined to be less directly actionable at the program level or required system-wide or data infrastructure beyond the scope of individual mobile clinics. Development included expert consultation, pilot testing, and iterative refinement informed by user feedback. The tool allows clinics to evaluate practices, identify improvement goals, and track progress over time. Since implementation, 82 MHCs representing diverse organizational types have used the PHQTool, reporting high usability and identifying common improvement areas such as outreach, efficiency, and equity-driven service delivery. Across pilot and post-pilot implementation phases, a majority of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the tool was user-friendly, relevant to their work, and appropriately scoped for mobile clinic practice. Usability and acceptance were assessed using descriptive statistics, including percentage agreement across Likert-scale items as well as qualitative feedback collected during structured debriefs. Reported findings reflect self-reported perceptions of feasibility, clarity, and relevance rather than inferential statistical comparisons. The PHQTool facilitates systematic quality assessment within the mobile clinic sector and supports consistent documentation of public health efforts. By providing a standardized, accessible framework for evaluation, it contributes to broader efforts to strengthen evidence-based quality improvement and promote accountability in MHCs.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph23020141","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]],"date-time":"2026-01-23T10:41:34Z","timestamp":1769164894000},"page":"141","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Developing a Public Health Quality Tool for Mobile Health Clinics to Assess and Improve Care"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2463-4855","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nancy E.","family":"Oriol","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Program in Medical Education, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Department of Anesthesia, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA 02215, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-0021-4359","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Josephina","family":"Lin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Family Van\/Mobile Health Map, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jennifer","family":"Bennet","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Family Van\/Mobile Health Map, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Mobile Healthcare Association, St. Louis, MO 63146, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Darien","family":"DeLorenzo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mobile Healthcare Association, St. Louis, MO 63146, USA"},{"name":"Mobile Health Care Authority, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mary Kathryn","family":"Fallon","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Family Van\/Mobile Health Map, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Delaney","family":"Gracy","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Children\u2019s Health Fund, New York, NY 10115, USA"},{"name":"New York Foundling, New York, NY 10011, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Caterina","family":"Hill","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Family Van\/Mobile Health Map, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"1A Wellness Group, Wenham, MA 01984, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Madge","family":"Vasquez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"St. David\u2019s Foundation, Austin, TX 78701, USA"},{"name":"Madge Vasquez Consulting LLC, Austin, TX 78704, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anthony","family":"Vavasis","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Callen-Lorde Community Health Center, New York, NY 10011, USA"},{"name":"New York Hotel Trades Council & Hotel Association Health Center, Brooklyn, NY 11217, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mollie","family":"Williams","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Family Van\/Mobile Health Map, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA"},{"name":"Mission Mobile Medical, Kernersville, NC 27284, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peggy","family":"Honor\u00e9","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"DHHS\/OS\/Office for the Assistant Secretary for Health, Washington, DC 20201, USA"},{"name":"LSU Health Sciences Center of Public Health and Medicine, New Orleans, LA 70112, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,1,23]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"40","DOI":"10.1186\/s12939-020-1135-7","article-title":"Mobile health clinics in the United States","volume":"19","author":"Malone","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Equity Health"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America (2001). Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century, National Academic Press."},{"key":"ref_3","first-page":"e45452","article-title":"The effectiveness of a mobile health clinic delivering mandatory and elective middle school immunizations: A descriptive analysis","volume":"15","author":"LaGattuta","year":"2023","journal-title":"Cureus"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"475","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mayocpiqo.2022.08.002","article-title":"A digitally capable mobile health clinic to improve rural health care in America: A pilot quality improvement study","volume":"6","author":"Iqbal","year":"2022","journal-title":"Mayo Clin. Proc. Innov. Qual. 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