According to a 2022 study with the Pew Research Center, the Latino population, as a whole, has less access to healthcare than other groups of people in the U.S. The Latino Health Insurance Program (LHIP) is a nonprofit that combats this issue for Latino people in Massachusetts by providing healthcare services and education. Some of the key programs that they offer are the Diabetes Prevention Program, Chronic-Disease Self-Management Program, English Classes, Prostate Cancer Prevention Program, and SNAP (a nutrition assistance program). The population served by LHIP is low-income and mainly speaks Portuguese and Spanish.
This summer, we had the opportunity to work with the LHIP in Framingham, MA. During our four weeks, we had the chance to shadow the nurses and doctors in the clinic and assist in creating a new design for their website.
Lily C: In the mornings I worked on updating the website with Dr. Abreu, the founder and CEO of the organization. Though they already had somewhat of a website set up, it was completely out of date and lacked a lot of information that was needed. Dr. Abreu also thought it needed to have some aesthetic changes as she wanted it to look more professional. In order to make these changes, I started with the basics of changing the look of the website. By adding some pictures, changing the colors, and rearranging the formatting, I was able to make it look like a better representation of LHIP than it previously was. After that was done, I began adding more information to the website about all of the different programs that LHIP offers and how to become involved with them. I also added a calendar with all of the organization's upcoming events and a page where patients can sign up for appointments online. This made everything more accessible to the patients and easier to keep track of the schedule at LHIP. Along with the changes that I made to the website, Yanci Blanco, a Patient Navigator at LHIP, and I created an Instagram page for the organization so that they are able to interact directly with their patients and remind them of any upcoming events. Overall, I was able to update the way that LHIP interacts with their patients in order to make the process easier for both parties.
Lily S: While Lily C. was downstairs, I worked in the clinic with nurses Rowena and Wendy and Dr. Dahod and Dr. Lubega. Every few days, the nurses and doctors would have a “huddle” in the clinic to create a space where they could voice concerns and offer suggestions to improve patient care. My task, which evolved from this meeting, was to help increase efficiency and lessen waiting times by bringing patients from the waiting room to the clinic at least fifteen minutes before the doctor was scheduled to see them.
When necessary, I would serve as a translator between the patients and doctors. I was also tasked with calling all of the patients who were under eighteen from the Worcester and Framingham clinics to ask if they needed vaccines for the school year or daycare and if they had a pediatrician. These patients spoke many languages from Spanish to Portuguese to Croatian to French. I called all of the Spanish-speaking patients myself and utilized the translating service to call the rest. Most of the children who are patients at LHIP were not born in the United States, so they do not have most of the required vaccines to attend school or a record of their previous vaccines. LHIP works to remove this barrier by offering childhood vaccines for free to any children who walk into the clinic. If a patient did have their vaccine records, I would look through them to determine what they still needed and have the nurses confirm before the doctor administered the vaccines. Throughout the day, I would walk through the clinic to see if there were any families with children and ask them if they needed any vaccines or wanted to schedule a physical with the onsite pediatrician.
Toward the end of the internship, I observed Dr. Dahod give vaccines. He taught me how the needle should look and how to correctly place and administer it on a child’s arm or leg depending on their age. LHIP has specific days every year when they offer the COVID-19 vaccine and childhood vaccines to anyone who needs them. I was tasked with helping the clinic reach more people to sign up for these days through flyers. On July 23rd, LHIP also offered a mammography van to patients, and Rowena, a nurse at the practice, Yanci, and I sat at the sign-in table to guide patients to the van and offer a free COVID shot if they wanted.
Lily S. and nurse Rowena Language inclusive poster Reviewed vaccine records by Lily S.
In the afternoons, the two of us worked together in the clinic. We got the chance to look at charts from different patients and learn how to interpret labs in order to understand what healthy vs unhealthy results look like. Through these labs, we learned about common conditions LHIP sees such as H. pylori and C. Diff. One test that stood out to us was the A1C test which measures the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood that is coated in sugar. We noticed there was a very high number of patients that we encountered who were either pre-diabetic or diabetic, including many children.
We worked on diabetes outreach by making sure patients' labs were up to date, and by calling to schedule them for appointments with Wendy. In these appointments, Wendy checks the patients’ feet because as diabetes progresses the nerves in their feet can become damaged. She also talks to them about managing diabetes by walking them through their treatment plan. When we make the calls, we also offer the Diabetes Self-Management classes, available in person or on Zoom, to the patients where they can learn about lifestyle changes that they can make to help live with their condition.
When most people think about working in healthcare, they don’t often think about all of the paperwork that comes along with it. To help lessen the load, we would do some small tasks to make life easier for the doctors and nurses around the clinic. Some of the things we did included sending faxes, filing, doing inventory of the vaccines, and looking up and recording patient information.
Lily S. organizing the vaccines The vaccine fridge Lily C. faxing The file drawers
Overall, through our time working at LHIP, we got to experience firsthand what it is like to work in the healthcare space. We learned so much and are super happy we had this opportunity to work so closely with the doctors and nurses, especially at a place that is so committed to helping their patients. We will definitely carry this experience and the things that we learned with us in the future.
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