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In March 2021, Thu Quach, Chief Deputy of Administration at Asian Health Services, and her team were holding a multilingual pop-up clinic for COVID-19 vaccination in a park near Little Saigon in Oakland, California, when a man approached her staff to ask if they were offering vaccinations and still had appointments for that day. WhenRead more

Portland, OR—OCHIN, a national nonprofit health IT organization that advances health equity by transforming health care delivery, announced a new technology partnership agreement with AristaMD that will expand virtual access to specialty health care services for nearly 6 million underserved patients across the country. Through AristaMD, an innovative telehealth platform that delivers timely and documentedRead more

MyChart is a secure online portal for patients to connect with their health care providers. During the COVID-19 pandemic it has made it easier to schedule appointments, share lab results or quarantine instructions, and conduct virtual video visits—ensuring that the essential health care services that community-based providers offer are available when patients needed them most.Read more

The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a disproportionate toll on people who identify as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), with research showing that BIPOC patients test positive for COVID-19 at higher rates than white patients. As COVID-19 care and vaccine distribution continues, more research is needed to better understand these disparities and their effectsRead more

Portland, OR— OCHIN applauds the Biden Administration for prioritizing health equity in a national COVID-19 response by ensuring that vaccines are provided to the nation’s federally qualified health centers (FQHCs). This is a crucial step toward ensuring that people of color, who have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic, are not left behind in theRead more

In the fall of 2020, Dr. Mike Farley, a clinical pharmacist for Winding Waters Community Health Center (Winding Waters) in Wallowa County, Oregon, prepared to administer the flu vaccine to a patient who had not received one in nearly 30 years. The patient, a military veteran, swore he would never get the vaccine again because,Read more

COVID-19 has exacerbated public health and economic crises, raising concerns about the unmitigated effects of pandemic-related stress on families and the potential for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) to increase. ACEs are traumatic events that occur before the age of 18, including physical and emotional abuse, neglect, caregiver mental illness, and household violence, among other things,Read more

In the first few weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Caroline Kennedy, Medical Director of Monterey County Health Department (MCHD) in California, was conducting phone screenings of H-2A temporary agricultural workers when she talked to Jorge,* a farmworker. After listening to his symptoms, Dr. Kennedy informed him that many were consistent with those of COVID-19Read more

The unprecedented year of 2020 is set to conclude with COVID-19 cases numbering higher than they have ever been in the United States. However, recent news of effective vaccines in development by companies such as Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca offer encouragement to patients and health care providers across the country as we approach their anticipatedRead more

In the United States, community health centers (CHCs) provide essential care to 30 million people in many of the nation’s most marginalized and hard-to-reach communities. Due to the relationship between social risk factors and health, there is growing emphasis on using electronic health records (EHR) to help identify and address patients’ these factors, also knownRead more