One of our community partners, the Medtronic Foundation, has formed a Learning Community with several of its partners who are working to reduce health disparities to share insights and discuss progress and lessons learned during the pandemic. In the Winter 2021 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review our executive director, Charlie Mandile, is quoted discussing the role that our Community Health Workers (CHWs) have played in proactively reaching out to patients, especially those with preexisting conditions, to assist them throughout the pandemic. This helps ensure health disparities are not widening, especially considering that people of color are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. “HealthFinders serves a large population of immigrant and refugee patients with chronic diseases, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease, in rural Rice County, Minnesota. In our county, nearly two-thirds of people who have contracted COVID-19 identify as Hispanic or Black. The coronavirus hit our community particularly hard because of their preexisting chronic conditions, and, for a time, we saw the fastest-growing outbreak in the United States. We deployed our unique community-driven model to proactively reach out to vulnerable patients. Our CHWs have been pivotal in this response. In addition to virtual visits, they used our care coordination technology to create watchlists that would allow them to proactively monitor both vulnerable patients with COVID-19 and people with suspected cases. Their work has included proactive calls and check-ins to ensure their patients know exactly how to seek help if they have COVID-19 symptoms. Our ongoing trusting relationships, strong communications, and relationship building have been critical to our success during the pandemic. In addition to information, reassurance, and guidance, our clinical teams and CHWs connect our patients to local resources such as housing assistance. We’ve also developed a produce delivery program to fill a critical gap in access to nutritious food. HealthFinders also prepares patients for calls they will receive from state or county contact-tracing authorities, encouraging them to answer the phone and reassuring them that these calls are simply to seek information about how the virus is spreading, not to punish people. By offering these resources and support, patients are better able to focus on their health.” – Charlie Mandile, HealthFinders Collaborative Executive Director Read more from other Learning Community members in the full issue:
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