Employment and Teleworking in the Argentine Tourism Sector: a Case Study Based on the COVID-19 Pandemic

We analyze the viability of teleworking in the tourism sector in Argentina by using the COVID-19 shock on employment as a case study. We pay special attention to the tourism sector and its sub-sectors because they comprise activities with low teleworking potential and high informality rates, which could further condition the effective implementation of new work arrangements, such as remote work. By using estimates of teleworking potential at the sectoral level, we study its relationship with the evolution of employment during the quarantines implemented in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in Argentina. We find a positive effect of teleworking potential on employment in the tourism subsectors, such as food and accommodation and travel agencies activities, but more pronounced in the other services subsectors (sports, cultural, and entertainment service activities). This suggests that, despite having a low telework potential, certain tourism activities could be performed remotely. Surprisingly, we find that teleworking potential had a positive effect on employment in some tourism subsectors only for informal workers. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.

INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDENT LEAD CALL CENTER TO SUPPORT SOCIAL NEEDS OF PATIENTS DIAGNOSED WITH COVID19

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM/QUESTION: Social risk factors (SRF), such as food insecurity, represent adverse social circumstances associated with poor health outcomes. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted impoverished communities by exacerbating existing SRF. Students and faculty at Boston University Medical Center (BUMC), an academic safety net hospital, and Boston University School of Social Work (BUSSW) partnered to develop an outreach call center (CC) to explore SRF of patients with COVID-19 and connect them with available social need resources. In this , the development and operations of the CC and descriptive data on the volume and type of outreach efforts will be presented. DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM/INTERVENTION: Call Center (CC) Operation: An ambulatory RN performed SRF screening in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and sent referrals to the CC. Then, students called patients and screened for SRF using the THRIVE screening tool, and used the THRIVE Directory, an online repository of resources, to provide information about organizations to support their social needs. Two weeks later, students called the patients to assess whether they received help and provided additional support as needed. MEASURES OF SUCCESS: Volume of outreach calls and type of outreach efforts were evaluated. Number of patients reached through the CC were tracked using Epic reports. Types of referrals were tracked using automated reports from the THRIVE Directory database. Finally, students completed surveys to reflect on their experiences and to evaluate the impact on skills to address social needs. FINDINGS TO DATE: Between 10/2020 and 03/2021, the CC served 312 patients and 478 referrals were made, with a mean of 1.53 referrals per patient. Patients were most often referred to the City of Boston Food Delivery (148 referrals). Patients were most often referred to Government programs (188), followed by BMC programs (133) and Local Non-Profits (70). The most common primary support area was Food. Preliminary results from students' surveys showed a positive impact in their skills to collaboratively address social needs. KEY LESSONS FOR DISSEMINATION: It was feasible to develop and implement an interdisciplinary social needs outreach workforce to support patients with COVID-19. Food was the most important driver of social need among BUMC patients. Our partnership with the City of Boston was key to effective assistance with food delivery, showing the importance of collaborative partnerships when developing outreach efforts to support patients with social needs. Finally, interdisciplinary outreach opportunities like the CC can be used to teach health professional students about the different scopes of practice and how to effectively collaborate with other disciplines when addressing patient health related social needs.

Social Determinants of Health Screening During COVID-19: A Comparison Between an Urban Academic Emergency Department Fast Track and Adult Primary Care Clinic

Study Objectives: Social determinants of health (SDOH) impact patients’ health outcomes, yet screening methods in emergency departments (EDs) are inconsistent. Patients who seek care in EDs may be at greater risk for adverse SDOH than those seen by their primary care physician (PCP), but little comparable data is available. The authors sought to identify SDOH among ED Fast Track patients during the COVID-19 pandemic at an urban, safety-net hospital, measure preferred methods of resource referrals and barriers to accessing resources, and compare the prevalence of adverse SDOH among of ED Fast Track patients to that of adult PCP clinic patients. Methods: ED Fast Track patients were screened using a validated SDOH screener, and asked about the impact of COVID-19 on their SDOH. This was a convenience sample conducted from 1/15/21 to 4/13/21 and determined to be exempt by the IRB. Trained study staff completed screening and provided a printed resource guide. A two-week follow-up telephone survey assessed for barriers to resource connection. ED Fast Track patient data was then compared to concurrent SDOH data for adult PCP clinic patients, which collected the same validated SDOH screening data but was self-reported. Results: Among 414 adult ED Fast Track patients, 296 (71.5%) screened positive for at least one adverse SDOH, most commonly education (38.41%), food (35.0%), and housing insecurity (20.5%). Most (56.8%) endorsed COVID-19 affecting their SDOH. Fewer patients (36/156, 23.1%) reported attempting to connect with a resource. Barriers to accessing resources included having no time to call or visit the resource (59%), not recalling being given the resource guide (41%) or having lost it (28%). When compared to adult PCP clinic patients (Table 1), ED Fast Track patients were 10 times more likely to report at least one adverse SDOH (OR 10.0, 95% CI 6.9-14.4), 13 times more likely to report housing needs (OR 13.1, 95% CI 5.2-32.7), 8 times more likely to have food insecurity (OR 8.2, 95% CI 4.7-14.1) and 11 times more likely to have employment difficulty (OR 11.1, 95% CI 5.7-21.6). Conclusion: Most ED Fast Track patients reported at least one adverse SDOH negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Providing printed resource guides at ED discharge may be insufficient for linking patients to resources. ED Fast Track patients were far more likely to report adverse SDOH than adult PCP clinic patients based on the unadjusted odds ratio analyses. This finding, however, is limited by the negative impact of COVID-19 on ambulatory SDOH screening rate, and a potential selection bias as patients with adverse SDOH may have experienced difficulty accessing their PCP clinics. This finding further emphasizes the need to standardize and expand SDOH screening and strengthen further resources from EDs. [Formula presented]