All across the country, the need for affordable healthcare is at an all-time high. And even with the difficulties that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused, healthcare professionals continuously rise to the occasion and help out their communities in many ways that often go unnoticed.
It might be safe to say that healthcare has never truly been “affordable” in the sense that the common middle-class citizen is prepared to pay. But then again, not many people are prepared to financially handle a medical emergency when one arises. In fact, most medical needs cost far more than the average American can afford.
But despite the high cost of healthcare, meeting the community where medical needs are critical is a task that many healthcare professionals are willing to meet.
Here, we’ll discuss a few ways in which some healthcare providers are making a difference in their communities.
Helping Immigrants
It should almost go without saying that if the average American citizen has difficulty affording healthcare services, then most immigrants likely find this to be even more challenging. And this is a distinct reality in communities across the United States with large immigrant populations.
Hillcroft Physicians in Houston is making strides in this area, and building bridges across cultural boundaries. In fact, the professional staff at Hillcroft Physicians has been serving both new and established immigrants and seeing to it that they receive affordable healthcare services since 1998.
Most of the staff at Hillcroft are from many of the areas that immigrants travel from when beginning their journey to seek better opportunities here in the United States. As such, they understand the difficulty of surmounting cultural boundaries and are better positioned to serve their immigrant community.
The standard set by Hillcroft Physicians is one that many healthcare providers can learn from, as immigrant communities across the United States are quickly growing even today.
Telemedicine
One of the ways that healthcare is being brought directly into the community is through the use of telemedicine. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, this technology proved to be not only useful but in many cases, absolutely necessary.
Telemedicine allows those who cannot leave their home, or who may be unwilling due to fear of catching COVID-19, a chance to be diagnosed and treated remotely. And this is especially helpful for those who don’t have emergency medical needs.
With telemedicine, a patient can receive treatment for the following illnesses:
- Arthritic pain
- Asthma
- Allergies
- Colds and Flu
- Infections
- Insect bites
- Diarrhea
Additionally, telemedicine also provides for a patient to get prescribed medications or receive refills on medication all remotely, without the need to spend hours in the waiting room of a hospital or clinic.
Further, telemedicine serves communities that don’t ordinarily have transportation to medical facilities such as the case with many elderly patients.
Community Engagement
One of the biggest ways healthcare professionals are making a difference in communities across the country is by direct involvement and engagement with individual communities. In this respect, it’s by educating the communities about available services that healthcare has become more effective and accessible.
For example, many people who live in larger communities aren’t fully aware of the healthcare services available. And in many cases, it’s only through community outreach programs that healthcare services can be acknowledged.
Outreach also comes in many forms. For instance, health fairs play a huge role in educating the community about the importance of adequate healthcare. Additionally, healthcare workshops that employers can become a part of are a great way to alert employees of the healthcare services available within a given community.
Finally, public meetings and promotional events are also being highly utilized by healthcare professionals in order to bring more focus to the importance of basic healthcare needs. And during the COVID-19 pandemic, this has proven useful for dispelling fears surrounding the many unknowns and misinformation circulating about the virus.
Going Forward in Good Health
At the end of the day, healthcare professionals are making huge differences in many more ways than those listed here. And it’s because of dedicated medical professionals that we have the services available when we need them the most.
Without our dedicated healthcare community, communities across the United States would suffer terribly, and we’d have much more to worry about than the high cost of healthcare. Instead, without the work and compassion of dedicated medical professionals, we wouldn’t have access to healthcare at all, and our world would be a much different place entirely.
In this respect, we owe all of our healthcare professionals a great deal of thanks and gratitude.