The South Los Angeles-based St. John’s Community Health network has launched a new program to ensure patients can still access health care in response to undocumented immigrants skipping doctors’ appointments out of fear.
The Trump administration has ramped up immigration enforcement across the country, raising deportation fears in the undocumented community.
Staffers at St. John’s noticed that hundreds of its undocumented patients cancelled appointments. As one of the largest health care providers for immigrants — serving approximately 25,000 undocumented patients across 20 clinics — staffers conducted a survey in February to understand their patients’ needs.
They discovered that about a third of those who skipped appointments have chronic conditions and were forgoing critical care. They also learned that there was a significant demand for health care access at home — either through telehealth services, home visits, or medication delivery.
In response, St. John’s launched the Health Care Without Fear program.
“We feel an obligation to make sure that people are able to remain healthy,” says Jim Mangia, the clinic’s president and CEO. “We expect that there will be a concerted effort on the part of [the Trump] administration to find and deport people regardless of how long they’ve been here. So we want to be prepared.”
St. John’s kick-started home visits at the beginning of March. Once it’s fully in operation, Mangia says they believe the program will treat hundreds of patients at their homes each week.
For now, the program is funded by the clinic’s general budget. But Mangia says there are plans to fundraise and apply for private and public grants to keep it running.
“We wanted to kick this off now before things got really dangerous, and we wanted to make sure that our patients knew we were going to be there for them regardless.”
St. John’s is also hosting know-your-rights workshops for its staff and patients, and have put additional protocols in place in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents show up at their clinics.
“We’re preparing our staff on how to respond to ICE, what a legitimate warrant is, and where to move patients if ICE were to enter the waiting room,” Mangia says.
The clinic’s main focus, he stresses, is to ensure the clinic is providing health care to undocumented patients through telehealth or in their homes, “so they don’t have to put themselves or their families in jeopardy every time they leave the house.”