Addressing Health Equity Goals for COVID-19 Vaccination Using Integrated Data and Mapping Tools: A Collaboration Between Academia, Public Health, and Health Care Systems in Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio.

CONTEXT: Data sharing between local health departments and health care systems is challenging during public health crises. In early 2021, the supply of COVID-19 vaccine was limited, vaccine appointments were difficult to schedule, and state health departments were using a phased approach to determine who was eligible to get the vaccine. PROGRAM: Multiple local health departments and health care systems with the capacity for mobile and pop-up vaccine clinics came together in Columbus and Franklin County, Ohio, with a common objective to coordinate where, when, and how to set up mobile/pop-up COVID-19 vaccine clinics. To support this objective, the Equity Mapping Tool, which is a set of integrated tools, workflows, and processes, was developed, implemented, and deployed in partnership with an academic institution. IMPLEMENTATION: The Equity Mapping Tool was designed after a rapid community engagement phase. Our analytical approaches were informed by community engagement activities, and we translated the Equity Mapping Tool for stakeholders, who typically do not share timely and granular data, to build capacity for data-enabled decision making. DISCUSSION: We discuss our observations related to the sustainability of the Equity Mapping Tool, lessons learned for public health scientists/practitioners, and future directions for extending the Equity Mapping Tool to other jurisdictions and public health crises.

Influences of Socio-Demographic Factors and Health Utilization Factors on Patient-Centered Provider Communication.

Patient-centered care has been documented as a measure of quality of health care and has been associated with positive health outcomes. However, the effect of health utilization on improving patient-centered communication has not been investigated. This study examined the effect of three important kinds of health utilization: routine check-up, frequency of provider visits in the last year, and quality of health care to patient-centered provider communication. Cross-sectional data from 3,608 respondents to Health Information National Trends Survey-Cycle 4 2014 were analyzed. Multiple regressions were used to examine the association of sociodemographic factors and health utilization to patient-centered provider communication. Results showed that adults above 50 years and women reported higher patient-centered provider communication. Hispanic and Asian versus White respondents reported poorer patient-centered provider communication. Respondents with routine checkups between 1 and 2 years, 2 and 5 years, 5 or more years and none were all negatively associated with patient-centered provider communication in comparison with routine checkup within 1 year. Respondents who didn't visit health provider within past year had poorer patient-centered provider communication when compared to those who visited once. Finally, higher quality of healthcare experience was associated with higher patient-centered provider communication. Thus, this study highlights that race and ethnicity, age, and gender are significant factors that influence patient-centered provider communication; and specifically higher quality of healthcare experience, one provider visit within past year, and annual routine checkup as measures of health utilization predicts improved patient-centered provider communication.