Winning Solution: COVID-19 in Translation: Making Patient Education Accessible to Minorities

Health communication is a key factor in saving lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. As the pandemic has developed, the need to provide clear, honest, and valid information to the public has become obvious. A significant barrier to effective health education for minorities is mistrust of the healthcare profession. Dialysis patients are vulnerable to COVID-19 and are in great need of information and resources to encourage the use of recommended self-protection strategies. An effective solution to deliver messaging to vulnerable African Americans is to seek credible messengers, tailor messages so they are culturally sensitive and appropriate, combine national campaigns with locally based ones to personalize the message, and consider the educational levels of the target population.

The Cleveland Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) has had a visible presence in the minority community for 25 years and is the only organization in Ohio providing community-based, culturally specific transplant, health, and prevention education exclusively to the minority community. MOTTEP is a community partner of the Centers for Dialysis Care and headquartered at the Centers’ East facility. The Centers for Dialysis Care and the Rosenberg Foundation support MOTTEP as the program pursues new avenues to connect, educate, and register organ, eye, and tissue donors during COVID-19.

MOTTEP received limited funding from the Ohio Commission on Minority Health to provide 500 dialysis patients with COVID-19 pandemic kits to encourage use of recommended self-protection strategies for COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic prevention kits included:

• Hand sanitizer
• Pocket tissues
• “Stop the Spread” information magnet
• COVID-19 checklist for prevention brochure
• The 2019 novel coronavirus brochure
• “Stop the Spread” wristband
• “Stop the Spread” bookmark

Pandemic kits were distributed to patients at two Centers for Dialysis Care locations, in a region where the social vulnerability index is high. The kits were distributed by Centers for Dialysis Care staff including nurses, dietitians, social workers, and other frontline workers, who fielded patient questions as needed and provided further COVID-19 education, which was documented in the electronic medical record.

The Cleveland Minority Organ and Tissue Transplant Education Program (MOTTEP) is a trusted community partner with an established record of health promotion and transplant education to underserved populations.