1. Closing Disparities in Pediatric Diabetes Telehealth Care: Lessons From Telehealth Necessity During the COVID-19 Pandemic
- Author
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Natalie M. Pageler, Sejal Shah, Christopher I. Morris, Alex Freeman, Monica Grover, Priya Prahalad, Barry P. Conrad, Tzielan Lee, Brianna Leverenz, Diane E J Stafford, and David M. Maahs
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Pediatric diabetes ,Public health insurance ,business.industry ,Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism ,media_common.quotation_subject ,education ,Closing (real estate) ,Telehealth ,Feature Articles ,Health equity ,Family medicine ,Chart review ,Pandemic ,Internal Medicine ,medicine ,business ,health care economics and organizations ,media_common - Abstract
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic necessitated using telehealth to bridge the clinical gap, but could increase health disparities. This article reports on a chart review of diabetes telehealth visits occurring before COVID-19, during shelter-in-place orders, and during the reopening period. Visits for children with public insurance and for those who were non-English speaking were identified. Telehealth visits for children with public insurance increased from 26.2% before COVID-19 to 37.3% during shelter-in-place orders and 34.3% during reopening. Telehealth visits for children who were non-English speaking increased from 3.5% before COVID-19 to 17.5% during shelter-in-place orders and remained at 15.0% during reopening. Pandemic-related telehealth expansion included optimization of workflows to include patients with public insurance and those who did not speak English. Increased participation by those groups persisted during the reopening phase, indicating that prioritizing inclusive telehealth workflows can reduce disparities in access to care.
- Published
- 2022
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