Journal of general internal medicine
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Despite greater care needs, patients with limited English proficiency (LEP) are less likely to use telemedicine. Given the expansion of telemedicine since the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying ways to narrow the telemedicine care gaps experienced by people with LEP is essential. ⋯ Mandarin-speaking adults with LEP see telemedicine as a convenient and necessary service. Issues with healthcare providers' and interpreters' communication skills and impatience were common. The lack of wrap-around language-concordant care beyond the visit itself was cited as an ongoing and unaddressed care barrier. Healthcare provider and interpreter training is important, as is availability of personalized and comprehensive language services in promoting patient autonomy, alleviating the burden on patients' families, and thus ensuring equitable healthcare access.
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Comparative Study
A Comparison of Palliative Care Delivery between Ethnically Chinese and Non-Chinese Canadians in the Last Year of Life.
Ethnically Chinese adults in Canada and the United States face multiple barriers in accessing equitable, culturally respectful care at the end-of-life. Palliative care (PC) is committed to supporting patients and families in achieving goal-concordant, high-quality serious illness care. Yet, current PC delivery may be culturally misaligned. Therefore, understanding ethnically Chinese patients' use of palliative care may uncover modifiable factors to sustained inequities at the end-of-life. ⋯ Chinese ethnicity was associated with a higher likelihood of mixed and specialist models of PC delivery in the last year of life compared to adults who were non-Chinese. These observed differences may be due to later initiation of PC in hospital settings, and potential differences in unmeasured needs that suggest opportunities to initiate early, community-based PC to support ethnically Chinese patients with serious illness.
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Minority racial and ethnic populations have the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes mellitus but lower use of sodium-glucose co-transporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i) and glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP1ra), novel medications that reduce morbidity and mortality. Observed disparities may be due to differences in insurance coverage, which have variable cost-sharing, prior authorization, and formulary restrictions that influence medication access. ⋯ Racial/ethnic disparities in novel diabetes medications were the largest among those with private insurance. There was no disparity among Medicaid enrollees, but overall prescription rates were the lowest. Given that disparities vary considerably by payer, differences in insurance coverage may account for the observed disparities in SGLT2i and GLP1ra use. Future studies are needed to assess racial/ethnic differences in novel diabetes use by insurance formulary restrictions and out-of-pocket cost-sharing.
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Comparative Study
Exploring the Telephone Call Experience of Patients with Non-English Language Preference in Primary Care vs. Specialty.
Latine people, comprising 18.5% of the US population, constitute the largest ethnic minority group, with nearly one-third self-identifying as having non-English language preference (NELP). Despite the importance of the telephone in health care access, there is limited understanding of how NELP patients navigate telephone calls with primary and specialty care clinics. ⋯ The findings underscore significant challenges faced by Spanish-speaking patients with NELP in ambulatory specialty care telephone calls. The study emphasizes the importance of creating inclusive multilingual telephone environments, standardizing interpreter access, and reflecting the diversity of the communities served.
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Most patients with mild or moderate COVID infection did not require hospital admission, but depending on their personal history, they needed medical supervision. In monitoring these patients in primary care, the design of specific surveillance programs was of great help. Between February 2021 and March 2022, EDCO program was designed in Tenerife, Spain, to telemonitor patients with COVID infection who had at least one vulnerability factor to reduce hospital admissions and mortality. ⋯ Vulnerable patients followed by a primary care programme had admission rates of 7.2% and mortality rates of 0.7%. Supervision of vulnerable patients by a Primary Care team was effective in the follow-up of these patients with complete resolution of symptoms in 91.7% of the cases.