HealthForce Kentucky (HFKY) is adding a second mobile simulation lab to its fleet and plans to make substantial headway in renovating its home base on Frederica Street in the coming months.
The mobile unit, named HealthForce One, is a full-scale simulation center within the shell of a semi-truck trailer. Inside the trailer are simulation mannequins equipped with monitors, whiteboard walls, and an additional room that can simulate a hospital experience, including sounds and smells.
HealthForce One has been making its rounds throughout Western Kentucky, with calls coming in daily for new site visits, HFKY Chancellor Bart Darrell said.
“A lot of our P-12 partners, our post-secondary education partners, and a lot of associations like state, firefighters, and first responders, those kinds of people have a need for it for their training as well. So it’s meeting a broad variety of needs with a broad variety of entities of people,” Darrell said.
Darrell noted they anticipated a decent demand for HealthForce One, but they did not predict the onslaught of requests they have received. So, the HFKY board thought it was only fitting to approve a second unit to be proactive in doubling their coverage.
The organization has already purchased the shell for the second unit, which is currently in its design stage. According to Darrell, renovation will take roughly 120 days before it is operational.
HealthForce Kentucky serves 16 counties, and the mobile unit allows communities that don’t have accessibility to the resources provided at HFKY home base to still receive them.
The home base sits at 2511 Frederica Street, with Darrell saying they plan to make some developments this year. A design committee is mapping out the layout of the building.
“In anticipation of when we would get to start this process, we already have created templates for what each area — technical or health professional area — might need in the simulation rooms. We got ahead of the game there,” Darrell said.
He noted the building doesn’t have many interior weight-bearing walls, so demolition is easier than expected; however, the architect, engineers, and contractors have not provided an exact schedule. The building was originally slated to be open in Fall 2023, but construction delays have pushed that back.
“We don’t want to rush to just have something done as quickly as possible because that’s not smart, but we’re also going to be very efficient on our time,” Darrell said.
