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Facilitating Rapid Linkage to Care

At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, CommUnityCare Health Centers in Central Texas held a vital role in community-wide, high-throughput testing. As pandemic dynamics shifted, they transitioned from drive-through testing to clinic-based point-of-care testing and curbside testing, facilitating a rapid linkage to care. With 25 sites and additional street and mobile services, CommUnityCare’s reach is extensive. They serve nearly 126,000 patients, with almost 85% of patients belonging to a racial or ethnic minority group, and staff have taken steps to ensure their patients are prioritized in the provision of care. Dr. Nick Yagoda, Chief Medical Officer at CommUnityCare, shared that they have developed treatment algorithms with regional partners to ensure “alignment, equity, and high-priority access” to therapeutics for populations at greater risk. They also developed strong relationships with their lab vendors to optimize processing times for tests. In-house, staff standardized workflows to support early diagnosis and decision-making at the point of care. For those patients who test positive for COVID-19, CommUnityCare has worked to ensure that treatment is accessible. Conveniently, they provide oral antivirals at point of care, as well as at their in-house pharmacies, which enables patients to receive the pills at the moment of diagnosis. To date, CommUnityCare has given out close to 52,000 COVID-19 at-home self-tests, with many of those received as part of the HRSA COVID-19 Testing Supply Program, and staff have administered roughly 114,000 PCR and antigen tests at CommUnityCare clinics. Additionally, CommUnityCare providers have prescribed over 90 courses of oral therapeutics and dispensed over 60 courses from their in-house pharmacy thanks to the HRSA Health Center COVID-19 Therapeutics Program.