An Interview The Two Georgias
Initiative Participant: Cynthia George
Horizons Community Solutions
The Early Cares Coalition
What has the pandemic experience been like for you
all?
We were ground zero for COVID-19 - actually, I
believe the first case in Georgia came through our
health system. We were very involved. I actually
ended up being called in to help the Department of
Public Health for two or three days while they didn’t
have a Public Information Officer. This (situation) was
so unknown to most people, that I really got to learn a
lot about what was happening from the inside out. I
was only there for two and a half days – it seemed like
a month, I think, because of so many things that were
going on. By the time I got back to work, we were
closing up the office and shutting down, and not
knowing how long that would be. Would it be just a
week? Who knew!
We quickly moved to getting everyone equipped and
went through a process of making sure everyone had
access to everything they needed, because health
navigation is a large part of what we do. So for our
patients, obviously, it was critical for us to not miss a
beat in that process – not knowing if we were going to
be able to continue the cancer screenings that we
provide, or if everything was going on hold.
That first week was probably a little hectic for
everybody, I think we were all in shock, honestly, at
what was going on as well. But within a week to ten
days, our team was able to transition everything that
we do from the office to a home environment, a
shelter in place environment. We were able to
continue to be in contact with our patients and with
our clients. We turned our ‘Prevent Type 2 Diabetes’
program into a virtual program almost overnight.
Those programs continued as they were. We adapted
very quickly, and I think that just speaks volumes to
the flexibility and passion, I think, that our team has
for the work that we do.
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Had you all previously used any telehealth or was
this a brand new method that you had to implement
overnight?
We were doing our work on the phone anyway – the
only contact we had with patients was for them to
come by and get their prep for a colonoscopy, or for
patient assistance, which is where we give gas cards
for cancer patients and cancer screening patients who
need help in getting to their appointments. Those are
the only contacts that we really had. We’ve all
experienced telehealth because our physicians were
using that, and are still using that here. We didn’t
really implement telehealth from a medical
standpoint (at Horizons). I think the Type 2 Diabetes
classes were more along those lines because they
were done virtually. A lot of patients in rural Georgia
don’t have internet, and don’t have a computer or a
smartphone. The challenge there was trying to
connect them to a place that they could go to do their
visit online, or just trying to figure out how we could
help them. It’s a different situation in rural Georgia for
telehealth – it’s a challenge, and it’s something we’ve
thought about as an organization, just in
conversations and dreaming about the future, of what
can our impact be on that. I think telehealth is going
to boom because of this, and it makes so much sense.
If we can get our part of the state able to participate
in that, it would be of great value. I think we would
really be able to improve the health among our
uninsured and underinsured.