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What the pandemic taught us about reaching medically underserved areas

"If we lead with equity, then we can try to decrease some of the outcomes that we’ve seen has happened throughout the pandemic."

COLORADO, USA — COVID-19 disproportionately impacted Black and Hispanic/Latino communities in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths. When vaccines became widely available, the disparities for communities of color continued.

"We learned about social determinants of health and how that truly impacts and effects people of color and the myriad of issues that we then need to address," said Dr. Ozzie Grenardo, Chief Diversity Officer at Centura Health.

Transportation, language, time, and misinformation barriers can all contribute to health disparities across communities; Grenardo said these are things health professionals knew existed but were heightened by the pandemic.  

He said the pandemic's biggest lesson was the need to approach healthcare through an equity lens, instead of equality. 

"If we lead with equity, then we can try to decrease some of the outcomes that we’ve seen has happened throughout the pandemic," Grenardo said. "Equity would say that we need to make sure that we’re doing different things to make sure that we’re reaching the most amount of people."

Throughout the pandemic, health systems relied on community organizations to spread accurate information about COVID-19 safety and even more so during the vaccine rollout process. 

Groups like the Latino Coalition of Weld County (LCWC) helped organize dozens of vaccine clinics and used their community connections to increase vaccination rates in Hispanic/Latino communities. 

Despite the challenges, they have helped vaccinate thousands of Coloradans, especially in rural areas. 

"I think going into neighborhoods, into community areas and bringing the vaccines is really helpful," said Stacy Suniga, LCWC President. "It’s helped people who have transportation issues." 

Grenardo said the pandemic brought a needed interconnectedness with community organizations.

"We’ve had wonderfully dedicated people who tried to make sure that everyone was taken care of, but we had so many gaps that it became a serious issue," he said. 

The practice of meeting people where they are should continue beyond the pandemic, Suniga and Grenardo said. 

Suniga, who now works to help the state navigate their mobile vaccine units, said they began offering flu shots in addition to COVID-19 vaccines. 

Suniga said, "We’ve learned some lessons, some important lessons, and now we need to put those lessons into practice."

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