WWW.QNS.COM RIDGEWOOD TIMES MARCH 3, 2022 13
To fully recover from COVID-19, we must focus on preventative care
BY DR. RAMON TALLAJ
For the last two years, the COVID
19 pandemic has eff ectively
pulled the curtain back on longstanding
health inequities across the
United States. Now that we are entering
a tentative recovery phase, it is
critical that we learn from the past
two years — and, to ensure that we
are ready for any future variants and
that we as a city seize the opportunity
to rebuild stronger, that we focus on
applying a preventive care strategy.
From the beginning of the pandemic,
New York City saw immense
disparities in not just who got infected,
but which of our friends and
neighbors needed to be hospitalized,
and ultimately who died. Today, out
of the 39,192 people who have died
from COVID in New York City, 841.6
per every 100,000 are Latino, 809.0
are Black, 449.89 are Asian and 493.3
are white.
These trends reflect the longstanding
disparities caused by language
and cultural barriers, racism
and discrimination, and already
disproportionate poor health.
It’s not just that a delivery worker
in Jackson Heights, the school cafeteria
worker from the South Bronx
or the nurse from East Flatbush had
to go to work while so many had the
privilege of staying home. They also
likely did not have health insurance
and may lack a primary care physician,
access to preventative care, or
other resources or information that
support better health outcomes.
These are the factors that have
worked against government and
health care responders. And this
is where a long-term preventive
strategy that’s a smart use of public
resources comes into play.
For five years before the pandemic,
doctors and policymakers united to
focus on boosting care quality while
driving down costs — a formula that
has consistently eluded national
politicians, but that we’ve been able
to get right here in New York. With
the state’s support, doctors took
on a challenge: how to drive down
avoidable hospital visits, which cost
taxpayers billions and distracted
emergency room providers away
from focusing on actual emergencies.
The effort has been successful.
In focusing on five chronic conditions
that plague poor communities
including obesity, hypertension,
asthma, heart disease and sicknesses
related to smoking, we have used a
culturally competent, communitybased
outreach and care delivery
strategy focusing on meeting patients
where they are to get them in
OP-ED
front of primary care doctors before
they get sick.
At SOMOS, the network I lead,
that works primarily in some of
New York’s poorest neighborhoods,
we have been able to raise outcomes
while saving the state over $340
million.
This has meant reintroducing
family doctors who speak patients’
languages to neighborhoods that
are otherwise health deserts or
only have large, corporate hospitals
where care is impersonal and intimidating
— especially for immigrants
— and, frequently, where staff doesn’t
speak the same language as the
highest-need patients.
To reach patients, we have used
community organizing strategies
that are normally associated with
political campaigns to switch emphasis
off crisis management and to get
them in front of doctors early. We
focused on partnering with trusted
neighborhood figures such as pastors
and teachers, and we even joined
up with popular entertainers to penetrate
hard-to-reach communities
using in-language content. And in a
revolutionary formula, doctors are
now being reimbursed by the state
for the total health of a patient, not
fee-for-service.
These non-traditional strategies
have worked: by focusing on total
health and on prevention, we have
driven unnecessary hospital usage
down by more than 25% in five years.
Back to the recovery from
COVID-19.
Let’s use this moment to dramatically
accelerate vaccination in all
hesitant communities to prevent
serious illness in case of another
wave, and adopt a wraparound care
strategy to do so.
We must meet these New Yorkers
where they are, not where we
want them to be. We must partner
with public housing, neighborhood
media outlets and even social media
influencers and well-respected local
politicians, principals, pediatricians
and pastors and use them to educate
and encourage. Authenticity and access
are crucial.
And while any strategy must be
led by doctors, an effective preventive
response cannot be limited to
the healthcare sector only. That’s
why I am encouraged that Mayor
Adams has filled his new COVID-19
task force with diverse leaders
from labor, homeless services, faith,
hospitality, teachers, media, representatives
of businesses large and
small, real estate and the disability
community.
Our focus will be on rebuilding
a city with a stronger social fabric,
long-term.
We will live with COVID-19 in
some variation for the foreseeable
future. But we need to prevent it
from ravaging our city or bringing
it to a standstill. A total-health,
preventive strategy and a focus on
long-term health equity can prevent
future episodes from quickly becoming
tragic or overly disruptive.
Dr. Ramon Tallaj is the co-chair of
Mayor Adams’ COVID-19 Recovery
Roundtable and Health Equity Task
Force and the chairman of SOMOS
Community Care.
SNAPS
FOREST HILLS WINTER WONDERLAND
PHOTO BY JOE ABATE
Send us your photos of Queens
and you could see them online or in our paper!
To submit them to us, tag @qnsgram on Instagram,
visit our Facebook page, tweet @QNS
/WWW.QNS.COM
