As the coronavirus pandemic stretches into its third month, it has become increasingly clear that while we all may be in this together, COVID-19 isn’t affecting us all equally.
Statistics gathered by Public Health Seattle & King County show that here, as elsewhere in the nation, coronavirus has a disproportionate effect on people of color. Recently, we outlined some reasons for differences. Now we’re asking another tough question: In the midst of the pandemic, what is HealthPoint doing to help address the disparities?
Open access to everyone
As one of 1,400 Community Health Center organizations in the United States, HealthPoint has been addressing unequal access to health care long before COVID-19. Our organization was founded in 1971 in the belief that the quality of care you receive shouldn’t depend on how much money you make, what language you speak, or your health status.
During the pandemic, we’ve worked hard to ensure that 10 of our clinics remain open to provide patients with essential services. We’ve established testing programs for COVID-19, including a drive-through site, and we’ve set up a telehealth program so all patients have safe access to their family doctors.
“With COVID-19, we had to move on telehealth very quickly,” says Michelle Glatt, HealthPoint’s vice president of population health. “We need to protect our communities that are at higher risk both for contracting the virus and for having severe complications if they do get it.”
Understand our patients’ lives
As racial and ethnic disparities have become pronounced during the pandemic, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged health care systems and providers to be aware of the effect conditions of life can have on health, and to be attuned to their own potential biases in treating their patients.
We know that to provide good care, it’s important to understand our patients’ experiences. To promote deeper understanding, we regularly ask about work, housing, family, home life, financial resources, and social and emotional support using a simple, multiple-choice questionnaire to start the conversation. In addition, we consistently train all of our staff members in topics that can affect our patients’ health, such as exposure to trauma.
Be a part of our communities
Our patients deserve to be understood by those who care for them. One way to help ensure success is to hire people who come from our patients’ own communities. From receptionists to interpreters to medical assistants and doctors, we look to our staff to provide comfort and understanding to patients from dozens of racial and ethnic backgrounds.
“We are the community that we serve,” says Magda Herrera de Leon, business director at HealthPoint’s Midway health center. “We want our patients to come in and see themselves reflected, to know we speak their language, to know we’ll understand them, to feel welcome.”
Look beyond the diagnosis
Getting to good health means going beyond treating problems as they arise. Because we understand that the condition of our patients’ lives can affect their health, we address the environmental and social factors that can make them sick.
That means providing a cooler to keep medication at a stable temperature, locating a crib for a new baby, finding an open swimming pool for a family that wants exercise, or helping someone who’s lost a job get enough to eat, says Magda Herrera de Leon. It means hiring an interpreter who speaks Dari for a new mother’s support group—a community of women who’ve continued to meet and support each other online during the pandemic.
“We’ve made a start,” says Magda, “but we have to keep on going. We have to keep up the fight.”
