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Inequalities in Telehealth Access Affected Latino Populations During COVID
Children's Wisconsin Hospital https://www.childrenswi.org cares for all aspects of health when the child enters the hospital. The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly accelerated the use of telehealth, however recent research shows inequities in telehealth access for underserved populations increased during COVID.
When Children's Wisconsin looked at their data, they found a loss in the use of telehealth affecting Latino families. In the 1st quarter of 2022, nearly 37% of all behavioral health visits were conducted via telehealth. It turns out that only 20% of Latino patients with Spanish as their primary language used those services. When factoring in patients with government provided medical insurance coverage, the number of video visits dipped to 18%.
To address the gap, Children's Wisconsin launched the "Enhancing Telehealth Readiness" (EnTeR) Project to focus on three primary categories of barriers to care that included the service system, community dynamics, and individual-based care.
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EnTeR was launched in conjunction with the rollout of Children's Wisconsin's Spanish language patient portal. To further address language barriers, the hospital trained behavioral health providers to incorporate interpreters into telehealth visits and adapt the visits to accommodate the Latino community.
The project then focused on increasing awareness of behavioral health in general and the role of telehealth within the Latino community. Next, resources for patients and their families were developed that included informational sheets and a video for the website in both Spanish as well as English to provide basic information on behavioral telehealth. The team also collaborated with leaders in local Latino communities to help raise awareness for educational resources available to patients and their families.
The EnTeR project also worked to improve telehealth access and utilization by providing Wi-Fi enabled devices and/or data plans to patients and families for their use of telehealth services.
Summing up, Kristin Kroll, PhD., Pediatric Psychologist formerly with Children's Wisconsin Hospital said, "Learning how to provide care to families from completely different cultures who are facing barriers that most therapists haven't faced in their own lives, requires extra time and training to provide the best treatment for that patient."