P0062 - The Role of a Federally Qualified Health Center During a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a significant loss of life and dramatically upended the livelihood of communities across the world. However, as with other health crises, the pandemic has hit low-income communities particularly hard. Epidemiological data have shown that individuals in poorer communities are not only at a higher risk for severe COVID-19 illness and fatality, but are also at a heightened risk of suffering long-term economic and social consequences as indirect effects of the pandemic, highlighting the need for community-wide interventions. As community-based institutions, whose primary role is to provide primary care and divert patients from emergency care, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) have a particularly important role to play. The purpose of this presentation is to describe the efforts of a FQHC located in the South Bronx, to prevent the disruption of health care services during the COVID-19 pandemic, and to facilitate critical continuity of care for medically and socially vulnerable patients in an effort to mitigate adverse health outcomes.

Our FQHC mobilized a COVID-19 response to address two primary goals: 1) to prevent disruption in primary care during a pandemic and shelter-in-place mandate through targeted outreach and telehealth services to medically and socially vulnerable populations, and 2) to identify and address the increased social needs of families adversely impacted by the pandemic through referrals to in-house and community resources.

Our data team compiled lists of patients for outreach based on the aforementioned goals and distributed them to clinical teams. Priorities for outreach included patients who rely on continuous clinical care and families at increased economic and social risk, such as newly-arrived immigrant families and families experiencing homelessness. Telehealth and in-person visits were systematically prioritized to include infants 0 to 2 years for well-child visits and vaccinations, children with persistent asthma, and adolescents with contraceptive needs (e.g. depo provera). Additional outreach was done to patients at heightened risk of adverse outcomes from a disruption of clinical care, specifically pregnant women, patients 70 years of age and older, and patients with comorbid medical conditions.

Social needs were addressed through the expansion of an existing emergency food pantry to offer household cleaning supplies, personal hygiene products, face masks, and health education material, and through referrals to community resources. Contactless delivery of these supplies was provided for homebound patients.

As this work is ongoing, future analysis will describe the extent of need during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of our efforts through analysis of clinical outcomes including timely immunizations, asthma outcomes, and adherence to reproductive health treatments. Lessons learned in our systematic response to this pandemic may be valuable for other health centers in planning for how to provide care for children and families during this, and future crises.