June 2023
Volume 64, Issue 8
Open Access
ARVO Annual Meeting Abstract  |   June 2023
Encounters at an Ophthalmology Student Run Free Clinic during the COVID 19 pandemic
Author Affiliations & Notes
  • Alexander Park
    Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center School of Medicine, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • Anindya Samanta
    Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • Kelly Mitchell
    Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, United States
  • Footnotes
    Commercial Relationships   Alexander Park None; Anindya Samanta None; Kelly Mitchell None
  • Footnotes
    Support  None
Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science June 2023, Vol.64, 5379. doi:
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      Alexander Park, Anindya Samanta, Kelly Mitchell; Encounters at an Ophthalmology Student Run Free Clinic during the COVID 19 pandemic. Invest. Ophthalmol. Vis. Sci. 2023;64(8):5379.

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      © ARVO (1962-2015); The Authors (2016-present)

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Abstract

Purpose : Student run free clinics (SRFC) offer an important service to socioeconomically underserved populations in different cities all over the country. These clinics, like many other areas of healthcare, were unable to provide their services during the quarantine period of the COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in decreased care of the underserved population. The specific effects of this lack of care on ophthalmology patients seen in these free clinics is unknown.

Methods : This study was a retrospective chart review from the ophthalmology student run free clinic in Lubbock, Texas. The analyzed patient populations were encounters seen in the ophthalmology clinic six months prior to the closure due to COVID and the encounters seen in the six months after the re-opening.

Results : Table 1 shows the results from the encounters. The results included a decline in the number of patients seen (47.3%) from the pre-COVID group (n=38) compared to the post-COVID group (n=20). Regarding the type of encounter, the number of routine screenings was stable, however, there was a significant decline in the number of encounters with active diseases (90.5%, 21 pre-COVID vs. 2 post-COVID). Active disease was defined as needing referral to a tertiary ophthalmology clinic or needing follow up at the free clinic in less than 12 months. Analysis showed that pre-COVID, 21 patients with active diseases had worse vision (-0.33 logMAR, p=0.034 right eye; -0.27 logMAR, p=0.048 left eye) than the 17 patients who presented for routine screening. In the post-COVID group, there were no patients that had multiple visits within the six-month period, in contrast to 5 follow up visits that were recorded in the pre-COVID group.

Conclusions : These results suggest that patients in West Texas with active eye disease are not presenting to student run free clinics after the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the reopening of the ophthalmology SRFC, healthy patients are still using it to get routine screenings, but there has been a sharp decline in patients with active visual disease coming to clinic. This compromises an already vulnerable population of underserved individuals whose gap in care is potentially enlarging.

This abstract was presented at the 2023 ARVO Annual Meeting, held in New Orleans, LA, April 23-27, 2023.

 

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