Missed a child vaccine. Skip the blood sugar test. Drugs abandoned by the pharmacy.
These are what health care disruption providers have noticed since immigration and customs enforcement actions that began in Southern California earlier this month.
Throughout the area, once affluent parks, shops and businesses were emptied by undocumented residents and their families At home fear. As rumors of immigration arrests rotate around clinics and hospitals, many patients also opt to skip chronic health care management visits as well as routine child checkups.
In response, local Federal Qualification Health Center – Acquire federal funding and require legal requirements for primary care, regardless of payment capacity – have been scrambling to organize virtual dates, home phone calls and pharmacies to patients who are no longer safe in public.
“We just see a very scary and chaotic environment that makes the health care needs of our patients extremely difficult,” said Jim Mangia, president of St. John’s Community Health, who provides medical, dental and mental health care services every year in Southern California.
Mangia said the system’s clinic network recorded an undisclosed rate of about 9% before the raid. More than 30% of patients have cancelled or failed to show in recent weeks. In response, the organization launched a program called “Healthcare” that doesn’t have to worry about providing virtual and home visits to patients who are concerned about the prospect of arrest.
“When we called back a patient who missed an appointment and didn’t call, they told us they wouldn’t come out because of the ice,” said Mangia. Mangia estimates that 25% of the number of patients at the clinic are unproven. “People missed some pretty big health care appointments.”
A recent survey of patients with non-profit health clinics in Los Angeles County found that there was no general trend among the 118 members of the Community Clinic Association. Los Angeles County President Louise McCarthy said. Some clinics have increased appointments, while others have not observed no changes. She noted that the data did not indicate how many patients chose to convert scheduled in-person access to telemedicine, so they did not have to leave their homes.
Patients also expressed concern that any use of health services could make them a target. Earlier this month The Associated Press reported The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including their immigration status, share personal data from Medicaid participants. There is no specific execution that is directly linked to the data.
“The uncertainty and anxiety that is happening right now is pale,” McCarthy said.
The county-run Los Angeles General Medical Center issued a statement Thursday dismissing reports that federal authorities had conducted law enforcement actions at the downtown trauma center. County healthcare facilities have not reported immigration-related arrests, but “the threat of immigration enforcement near any healthcare facilities undermines public trust and endangers community health,” the department said in a statement.
Los Angeles County is one of the providers working hard to expand Home Care Options For example, drug delivery and nurse consultation lines make people reluctant to show up in person.
“But not all medical appointments or conditions can be resolved remotely,” a spokesperson said. “We urge anyone who needs to be careful not to delay.”
Providers expressed concern that the absence of preventive care appointments could lead to emergencies, which both threaten the lives of patients and emphasize public resources. Preventive care “makes great health in our community and benefits everyone in Los Angeles.” He asks his employer to be named for fear of attracting attention.
He said that ignoring care now, “in the long run, it will cost everyone more money.”
Dr. Bukola Olusanya, medical director at St. John’s, said people with hypertension now skip blood pressure monitoring appointments and are more likely to bring it into a heart attack in the future.
“if [people] Drugs were not available and they were unable to follow up. This means that chronic diseases that have been managed and well-controlled will only worsen. “We’ll see patients going to the emergency room for more time than they should, rather than going to primary care,” she said. ”
Providers have seen this shift. When a health team recently visited a diabetic person at home, they found her blood sugar levels high, Mangia said. She told the team that she spent nothing but tortillas and coffee over the past five days instead of risking a trip to the grocery store.
