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Volunteers with the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri hold pop-up clinics for vulnerable patients, to make sure people receive vaccinations and treatment for flu and respiratory illness. (Courtesy photo)
It’s been a tough year for flu in Baton Rouge, according to Dr. Rani Whitfield.
“This is probably the heaviest respiratory season we’ve seen since Covid,” says Dr. Whitfield. As the chief medical officer at Open Health Care Clinic (OHCC) in Louisiana, he has seen a major surge in RSV, influenza, and Covid-19. Currently, his team is also treating severe secondary infections like pneumonia.
These illnesses spread quickly among families living in crowded housing. Consequently, severe infections began overwhelming local emergency rooms earlier this season. This surge is a major concern for Open Health, which provides specialized care to patients living with HIV and AIDS.
BRACING FOR A TRIPLE THREAT IN LOUISIANA
“It’s quieter now, but this was the season,” Dr. Whitfield said.
Clinicians at OHCC have focused on vaccinating patients – to prevent the worst symptoms – and on providing immediate testing for influenza and Covid-19, along with antivirals to prevent severe cases.
To make this possible, Dr. Whitfield explained, they’ve relied heavily on support from Direct Relief.
To meet this need, Direct Relief launched a new test-to-treat initiative this year. The program strengthens the capacity of safety-net clinics and health centers during peak respiratory seasons, ensuring that vulnerable populations receive immediate care.
PROGRAM IMPACT
Through this initiative, Direct Relief provided the following support to partner clinics nationwide
Resource Provided
Quantity / Metric
Impact Area
Vaccinations
76,600+ doses
Flu & Covid-19
Diagnostic Tests
55,392 tests
Rapid detection
Antiviral Treatments
754 units
Severe case prevention
Total Program Value
$7.2 Million
607 U.S. Clinics
A patient receives a vaccination at Open Health Care Clinic. (Courtesy photo)
“We launched the program to fill needed gaps in prevention, testing, and treatment,” explained Katie Lewis, Direct Relief’s regional director for U.S. programs. “A comprehensive test-to-treat program directly addresses gaps in respiratory care access and builds local capacity for response during seasonal surges.”
OHCC, for example, received more than $33,000 in Covid-19 and flu tests and vaccines.
Many patients at OHCC are trying to manage HIV or AIDS, or chronic conditions like diabetes, COPD, and hypertension. That already makes them more likely to experience the worst outcomes from a severe infection. Dr. Whitfield is also concerned that many patients already worry about missing a shift at work; if they can’t receive everything they need at a single appointment, they may not come back.
“These high-risk patients can get very sick…We want to make sure they’re tested and treated as quickly as possible,” he explained. “That’s why having supplies on hand…is so important.”
Dr. Whitfield even credits the test-to-treat program with helping to keep the local healthcare system functional.
“Direct Relief has helped us keep patients out of the ER. They’re treated in the clinic,” he said. “If we’re not resourced…the entire system is going to fail.”
Supporting Pregnant Patients in Dallas, Texas
“The emergency rooms are busy,” agreed LaCal Bates, senior director of clinical operations at Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic.
In Dallas, where Los Barrios Unidos serves more than 5,400 patients at six locations each month, Dr. Eduardo Torres has noticed a “huge increase” in flulike symptoms among his pregnant patients.
“I would say [the case load is] probably double of what I’ve seen before,” the obstetrician told Direct Relief.
Despite misinformation, Dr. Torres reported that pregnant women generally want to receive a flu vaccine, because severe flu during pregnancy can be a medical emergency for both the mother and her baby.
“If someone is not vaccinated, they get really worse,” he said.
Los Barrios Unidos received more than $186,000 in Covid-19 tests, and Covid-19 and flu vaccines, from Direct Relief.
A provider at Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic advises a patient. (Courtesy photo)
Like at OHCC, staff at Los Barrios Unidos work hard to prevent transmission. They supply patients with PPE and offer advice on how to isolate. However, Dr. Torres noted that isolation is difficult in the crowded, multigenerational, or shared households common among their patients.
Vaccines are “going to lessen your symptoms, so we can care for you in the clinic,” Bates noted.
Expanding Access in Southeast Texas
When nurse practitioner Cynthia Arceneaux spoke to Direct Relief, her young grandchild had just tested positive for Influenza A. As a result, she has seen firsthand how heavily this season is hitting her community.
“From a health care standpoint, it has been overwhelming,” said Arceneaux, the medical director at Gulf Coast Health Center in Southeast Texas.
According to Arceneaux, many patients are likely to delay treatment for too long. They are often worried about money, or they try what billing manager Claudette Phillips described as “old-fashioned remedies” first. Unfortunately, this delay allows their illness to grow much more severe.
In addition, a significant number of patients speak Spanish or Vietnamese. Consequently, they require information and care in their own language. Many parents also cannot afford to miss work or take their kids out of school for vaccines and testing.
REMOVING BARRIERS TO CARE
Gulf Coast has responded by offering late-evening hours on Fridays and Saturday clinics. The community health center provides vaccinations at local schools, and information in multiple languages.
“All the parents always say thank you. They don’t have to pull their kid out of school to get their vaccines. They don’t have to miss work to get their vaccines,” Arceneaux said. “We’re trying to make sure we don’t leave anybody outside of the loop.”
Direct Relief provided Gulf Coast Health Center, a long-term partner, with over $53,000 in Covid-19 and influenza tests, as well as flu vaccines.
A nurse at Gulf Coast Health Center prepares specimens for testing. (Courtesy photo)
The ability to provide free testing has been precious to patients, Arceneaux and Philips told Direct Relief.
“It’s been so helpful,” Arceneaux said.
A patient who comes in with serious respiratory symptoms is often anxious about money they can’t afford to pay, Phillips explained. Having to pay for tests or even for over-the-counter flu and cold remedies may mean not being able to put food on the table. (Gulf Coast provides these items for free.)
Patients think, “‘I’ve got to get tested for this, I’ve got to get tested for that.’ And that’s money,” she said. “We say, ‘No, we have programs that can help us with the testing,’ and you can see the relief on patients’ faces.”
That relief frequently translates into word-of-mouth, which encourages new patients who might have thought they couldn’t afford respiratory care to come in. “Word of mouth in this community goes a long way,” Phillips explained. She gave an example: A mother home from work with a sick kid may talk to a fellow parent. She’ll then come in and say, “‘Hey, I hear y’all got testing for the flu.’”
“A little bit of compassion, a little bit of medication”
“It’s hitting a lot right now,” said Stephanie Brady, executive director of the Community Clinic in Southwest Missouri.
The clinic, which serves about 5,000 patients each year, keeps a few appointments open each day for walk-in patients.
This respiratory season, Brady said, those spots have filled quickly, often with patients with the flu or Covid-19.
A provider administers a pulmonary function test at the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri. (Courtesy photo)
She’s particularly concerned about the impacts on patients. This includes people who are unhoused or have chronic lung diseases like COPD and asthma. (High-risk patients receive care at special pulmonary clinics – Brady recruited two pulmonologists to volunteer at the clinic about five years ago – and are vaccinated at the beginning of the season for flu, pneumonia, and other respiratory illnesses that pose a particular threat to their health.)
hELPING pATIENTS mAKE eNDS mEET
Many of the Community Clinic’s patients are what Brady calls “the working poor”: They make too much money to qualify for the state’s Medicaid program, but can’t afford private insurance. “They’re trying to make ends meet, and they just can’t get ahead,” she said.
For that reason, many of them go years without seeing a doctor before they discover there’s a clinic available.
Staff members work closely with local hospitals – for example, Brady estimates that the Community Clinic prevents about 1,300 emergency room or urgent care visits to a community hospital each year, all from patients who can’t afford to pay for healthcare. The hospitals provide support to the clinic in return.
This respiratory season, Direct Relief provided the Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri with more than $142,000 worth of Covid-19 vaccines and tests for Covid-19 and flu.
Pop-up clinics and vaccination visits to homeless shelters, domestic violence shelters, and local community organizations help volunteers reach the most vulnerable for both vaccination and testing.
A patient receives a vaccination during a Community Clinic of Southwest Missouri pop-up clinic. (Courtesy photo)
These patients are eligible for free care at the clinic, Brady said, but they often don’t come of their own volition.
Clinic staffers are “seeing all these people who are sick, and it’s cold outside, and they’re trying to live on the streets,” Brady said. “A little bit of compassion, a little bit of medication, some cough drops, and it means the world to them.”
Direct Relief’s test-to-treat program was made possible by medical product donations from Abbott, CSL Seqirus, Genentech, Moderna, Pfizer, and Sanofi.
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