American Heart Association: California company helps ‘safety net’ clinic rise to pandemic challenges
ConsejoSano founder and CEO, Abner Mason, says Tyson Impact Fund support has allowed his company to drive telehealth efforts for safety net clinics during the pandemic.
Even before the pandemic, the patients served by Indian Health Center of Santa Clara Valley were often hard to reach with important public health messages.
Geographic, cultural, linguistic and other challenges contribute to the health inequities faced by patients of the Indian Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center providing primary care to the entire community. But it prioritizes the unique health care needs of American Indians and Alaskan Natives, whose life expectancy is 5.5 years shorter than the population as a whole.
ConsejoSano generated more than 50,000 telehealth visits for the Indian Health Center and other health centers during the pandemic. Through education and engagement campaigns, ConsejoSano's team explained to patients how telehealth worked, that it was available to them and how they could schedule appointments. In some cases, Consejosano team members made appointments directly for patients, and are now helping get out the word about vaccine safety and appointments.
COVID-19's disproportionate effect on Americans with low incomes and other health challenges is a call for the U.S. to close longstanding health care gaps, Mason said. ConsejoSano, a for-profit company, also works with employers and insurance plans to improve health care outcomes for populations in need.
"The pandemic reinforced what we know is true: The health care system really doesn't work for low-income people and multicultural people," Mason said.
Click here to read the full AHA news article.
“Every person needs to know they are not just a number, and regardless of their history with the health care system or their social determinants of health, that they are a real person who matters. They belong.”
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