Latest news with #StJohnsCommunityHealth
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
In Southern California, many are skipping healthcare out of fear of ICE operations
Missed childhood vaccinations. Skipped blood sugar checks. Medications abandoned at the pharmacy. These are among the healthcare disruptions providers have noticed since Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations began in Southern California earlier this month. Across the region, once-busy parks, shops and businesses have emptied as undocumented residents and their families hole up at home in fear. As rumors of immigration arrests have swirled around clinics and hospitals, many patients are also opting to skip chronic-care management visits as well as routine childhood check-ups. In response, local federally qualified health centers — institutions that receive federal funds and are required by law to provide primary care regardless of ability to pay — have been scrambling to organize virtual appointments, house calls and pharmacy deliveries to patients who no longer feel safe going out in public. 'We're just seeing a very frightening and chaotic environment that's making it extremely difficult to provide for the healthcare needs of our patients,' said Jim Mangia, president of St. John's Community Health, which offers medical, dental and mental health care to more than 100,000 low-income patients annually in Southern California. Prior to the raids, the system's network of clinics logged about a 9% no-show rate, Mangia said. In recent weeks, more than 30% of patients have canceled or failed to show. In response, the organization has launched a program called Healthcare Without Fear to provide virtual and home visits to patients concerned about the prospect of arrest. 'When we call patients back who missed their appointment and didn't call in, overwhelmingly, they're telling us they're not coming out because of ICE,' said Mangia, who estimates that 25% of the clinic's patient population is undocumented. 'People are missing some pretty substantial healthcare appointments.' A recent survey of patient no-shows at nonprofit health clinics across Los Angeles County found no universal trends across the 118 members of the Community Clinic Assn. of L.A. County, President Louise McCarthy said. Some clinics have seen a jump in missed appointments, while others have observed no change. The data do not indicate how many patients opted to convert scheduled in-person visits to telehealth so they wouldn't have to leave home, she noted. Patients have also expressed concerns that any usage of health services could make them targets. Earlier this month, the Associated Press reported that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services shared the personal data of Medicaid enrollees with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, including their immigration status. No specific enforcement actions have been directly linked to the data. 'The level of uncertainty and anxiety that is happening now is beyond the pale,' McCarthy said, for patients and staff alike. County-run L.A. General Medical Center issued a statement on Thursday refuting reports that federal authorities had carried out enforcement operations at the downtown trauma center. While no immigration-related arrests have been reported at county health facilities, 'the mere threat of immigration enforcement near any medical facility undermines public trust and jeopardizes community health,' the department said in a statement. Los Angeles County is among the providers working to extend in-home care options such as medication delivery and a nurse advice line for people reluctant to come in person. 'However, not all medical appointments or conditions can be addressed remotely,' a spokesperson said. 'We urge anyone in need of care not to delay.' Providers expressed concern that missing preventative care appointments could lead to emergencies that both threaten patients' lives and further stress public resources. Preventative care 'keeps our community at large healthy and benefits really everyone in Los Angeles,' said a staff member at a group of L.A. area clinics. He asked that his employer not be named for fear of drawing attention to their patient population. Neglecting care now, he said, 'is going to cost everybody more money in the long run.' A patient with hypertension who skips blood pressure monitoring appointments now may be more likely to be brought into an emergency room with a heart attack in the future, said Dr. Bukola Olusanya, a medical director at St. John's. 'If [people] can't get their medications, they can't do follow-ups. That means a chronic condition that has been managed and well-controlled is just going to deteriorate,' she said. 'We will see patients going to the ER more than they should be, rather than coming to primary care.' Providers are already seeing that shift. When a health team visited one diabetic patient recently at home, they found her blood sugar levels sky-high, Mangia said. She told the team she'd consumed nothing but tortillas and coffee in the previous five days rather than risk a trip to the grocery store. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Health clinics that service immigrants are making house calls on patients too afraid to leave home
Across Los Angeles, the Inland Empire and the Coachella Valley, one community health center is extending its services to immigrant patients in their homes after realizing that people were skipping critical medical appointments because they've become too afraid to venture out. St. John's Community Health, one of the largest nonprofit community healthcare providers in Los Angeles County that caters to low-income and working-class residents, launched a home visitation program in March after learning that patients were missing routine and urgent care appointments because they feared being taken in by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. St. John's, which offers services through a network of clinics and mobile units across the region, estimates that at least 25,000 of its patients are undocumented, and about a third of them suffer from chronic conditions, including diabetes and hypertension, which require routine checkups. But these patients were missing tests to monitor their blood sugar and blood pressure, as well as appointments to pick up prescription refills. Earlier this year, the health center began surveying patients and found that hundreds were canceling appointments 'solely due to fear of being apprehended by ICE.' President Trump came into his second term promising the largest deportation effort in U.S. history, initially focusing his rhetoric on undocumented immigrants who had committed violent crimes. But shortly after he took office, his administration said they considered anyone in the country without authorization to be a criminal. In the months since, the new administration has used a variety of tactics to sow fear in immigrant communities. The Department of Homeland Security has launched an ad campaign urging people in the country without authorization to leave or risk being rounded up and deported. Immigration agents are showing up at Home Depots and inside courtrooms, in search of people in the U.S. without authorization. Increasingly, immigrants who are detained are being whisked away and deported to their home countries — or, in some cases, nations where they have no ties — without time for packing or family goodbyes. The Trump administration in January rescinded a policy that once shielded sensitive locations such as hospitals, churches and schools from immigration-related arrests. Read more: Kern County immigration raid offers glimpse into new reality for California farmworkers In response to the survey results, St. John's launched the Health Care Without Fear program in an effort to reach patients who are afraid to leave their homes. Jim Mangia, chief executive and president of St. John's, said in a statement that healthcare providers should implement policies to ensure all patients, regardless of immigration status, have access to care. 'Healthcare is a human right — we will not allow fear to stand in the way of that,' he said. Bukola Olusanya, a nurse practitioner and the regional medical director at St. John's, said one woman reported not having left her home in three months. She said she knows of other patients with chronic conditions who aren't leaving their house to exercise, which could exacerbate their illness. Even some immigrants in the U.S. legally are expressing reservations, given news stories about the government accusing people of crimes and deporting them without due process. Olusanya said waiting for people to come back in for medical care on their own felt like too great a risk, given how quickly their conditions could deteriorate. 'It could be a complication that's going to make them get a disability that's going to last a lifetime, and they become so much more dependent, or they have to use more resources," she said. "So why not prevent that?' Read more: More immigrants opt to self-deport rather than risk being marched out like criminals On a recent Thursday at St. John's Avalon Clinic in South L.A., Olusanya prepared to head to the home of a patient who lived about 30 minutes away. The Avalon Clinic serves a large population of homeless patients and has a street team that frequently uses a van filled with medical equipment. The van is proving useful for home visits. Olusanya spent about 30 minutes preparing for the 3 p.m. appointment, assembling equipment to draw blood, collect a urine sample and check the patient's vitals and glucose levels. She said she has conducted physical exams in bedrooms and living rooms, depending on the patient's housing situation and privacy. She recalled a similar drop in patient visits during Trump's first administration when he also vowed mass deportations. Back then, she said, the staff at St. John's held drills to prepare for potential federal raids, linking arms in a human chain to block the clinic entrance. But this time around, she said, the fear is more palpable. 'You feel it; it's very thick,' she said. While telehealth is an option for some patients, many need in-person care. St. John's sends a team of three or four staff members to make the house calls, she said, and are generally welcomed with a mix of relief and gratitude that makes it worthwhile. 'They're very happy like, 'Oh, my God, St. John's can do this. I'm so grateful,' ' she said. 'So it means a lot.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
