Doctors like Yinan Lan are passionate about improving the conditions of the homeless amidst the coronavirus pandemic. Lan is a primary care physician at the NYC Health + Hospitals/Bellevue, and was already known as a pioneer in the care of New York City’s homeless population before COVID-19 pandemic struck.
Lan is a medical director and co-founder of the Bellevue Primary Care Safety Net Clinic, and she along with her team extends themselves further to meet the needs of patients whose difficulties are only worsened due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Since they live in close quarters in shelters- they are highly exposed to infection and new city-wide restrictions reduce their ability to fend for their most basic needs.
She says it brings major challenges due to the shelter arrangements like the closure of restaurants from where they source food and closure of public bathrooms that people commonly use.
Lan says they are a team of less than 20 people with a goal to take care of people both medically sick and experience a serious version of poverty in that they’re homeless. So, their goal in taking care of them is to get them medically better by extending help to secure food and the best version of health and security.
Lan also moves out from the clinic to deliver food or clothing to patients living on the streets, to help patients reach to mental healthcare appointments or ride with the street outreach teams in the city.
Some homeless people are extremely vulnerable. These are patients unstably sheltered and bounding between shelters or on the streets. Most of them are patients whom her team is going to spend a lot of time to track them down. They’re hit harder by this pandemic.
Those seriously ill are at risk of losing their connection to medical care says Lan. Thus, the team has developed a network system to keep track of people who might fall through the cracks. They have a database that is frequently updated to ensure patients are in places that are physically safe, where they can stay for a time and have enough food and medication.
The team screens homeless people for the coronavirus and find if they have COVID-19 symptoms. The team determines if they need the emergency room or can be cared elsewhere or is there a place where they could be sheltered.
Lan currently lives apart from her family like many healthcare providers. She is inspired by her team members who have displayed amazing resilience and gone out of their way to ensure homeless people have their needs met.