b'Voices from the Field: Partnerships are key to addressing health inequities Mary Jo Cagle, MD, President and CEOEveryone wants a healthy North Carolinahealth care providers most of all. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put into stark relief the inequities that many North Carolinians face.Many people dont have a relationship with a doctor because there arent any where they live. They couldnt register for a lifesaving vaccination because there is no broadband in their neighborhood. Others were reluctant to get vaccinated because they didnt trust the medical establishment. To be honest, health care cant fix this. But the good news is, through partnerships we all can. Here are some ways Cone Health and its partners are making a difference.Imagine missing 10% of the school year and trying to keep up. We are tackling chronic absenteeism by partnering with Guilford County Schools. We brought telemedicine into three schools as a pilot. Now when a student has an earache, she and a parent take part in an online visit with a doctor. A nurse uses Bluetooth-connected devices so the doctor can peer into the childs ear or listen to her heartbeat. The student may get a prescription and returns to class. Parents dont miss work to pick up a sick child from school, and parent and child dont spend hours that night waiting on an emergency room doctor.In the first year of the program, 300 children received care in their schools virtual clinic. Of those 300, 240 returned to their classroom the same day. Without telemedicine services, all 300 would have been sent home, missing the rest of the school day.Cone Health is tackling a lack of neighborhood doctors through a mobile medicine program. Specially equipped buses and vans make accessing diagnosis, treatment, education and support easier than its ever been. The program offers basic acute and primary care, as well as basic health screenings, annual wellness visits and cancer screenings. The seeds were sown during the pandemic. We partnered with churches, community centers and neighborhoods to bring testing and vaccinations to residents. The roots of those partnerships grow strong today.To help address the long-standing need for enhanced behavioral health care in North Carolina, Cone Health partnered with Guilford County and Sandhills Center to open the Guilford County Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC). The first of its kind in the state, the BHUC combines behavioral health services and emergency medical care provided by Cone Health hospitals in a specially designed single location, making acute and outpatient therapy accessible for adolescents and adults 24 hours a day, seven days a week.But the ultimate partnerships are with residents themselves. With Guilford County, we are forming a joint team to partner with the communitys most vulnerable members in identifyingand removingobstacles that impact their ability to get healthy and stay healthy. We will use community-based design, social innovation and other techniques to explore access to health care, access to quality education, reliable transportation, safe housing, proper nutrition and other factors that influence health.3 O c t o b e r 1 , 2 0 2 1 t o S e p t e m b e r 3 0 , 2 0 2 2'