Community Healthcare Workers (CHW) High-Risk Stabilization Study: Does the Ability of CHWs at Mobile COVID Clinics to Link patients with Uncontrolled Diabetes to a Physician Improve Short Term Outcomes?

Abstract

Uncontrolled diabetes may cause preventable but significant effects. One major preventative measure is early screening; there are hopes that community healthcare workers can increase awareness and screening availability, especially in underserved populations. We hosted and recorded logs of patients at mobile COVID health clinics, educating those with uncontrolled diabetes and connecting them to healthcare. We then looked to see if any patients had improvements in blood glucose to non-diabetic levels. 378 patients were logged, but only 138 were in events that had a significant amount of repeat visits. Twenty-five of them had blood sugar indicative of uncontrolled diabetes. Out of those, there were six patients with uncontrolled diabetes and multiple visits. Four of them had improvements in blood glucose on their most recent visit, with two maintaining persistently high levels of blood glucose. While these preliminary studies show promise in the potential efficacy of CHWs in improving screening and outcomes of uncontrolled diabetes, there is a very limited sample size. Future studies should incorporate more patient logs and explore other chronic conditions commonly undiagnosed in underserved populations such as chronic kidney disease and hypertension