KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — COVID-19 is impacting how Remote Area Medical operates.

The nonprofit provides free medical, dental and vision care for those who are uninsured.

RAM is suspending all mobile medical clinics from March 16 through May 28, as the organization follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on social gatherings.

Volunteers and staff who normally work at the headquarters are now working from home and practicing social distancing.

In the meantime, they’re working toward new ways to help those in need.

“We’ve partnered with a company called CareClix. We’re just at the very beginning stages of that. The way I like to look at that is that it’ll become a virtual clinic. We’ll be setting those up online and we’re still working with what that’ll look like. Those 500 patients who come to our clinics every weekend, how do we take care of them?”

Jeff Eastman – CEO, RAM

RAM was called to recruit volunteers to help collect forms and direct traffic in drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites in Chicago just recently.