{"id":34588,"date":"2022-02-16T16:26:54","date_gmt":"2022-02-16T22:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=34588"},"modified":"2022-02-16T16:28:13","modified_gmt":"2022-02-16T22:28:13","slug":"theres-going-to-be-a-real-blip-medical-professionals-are-concerned-about-delayed-routine-screenings-and-their-long-term-effects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2022\/02\/16\/theres-going-to-be-a-real-blip-medical-professionals-are-concerned-about-delayed-routine-screenings-and-their-long-term-effects\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;There&#8217;s going to be a real blip:&#8217; Medical professionals are concerned about delayed routine screenings and their long-term effects."},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px; margin-bottom: 20px; border-radius: 6px; overflow: hidden;\"><iframe style=\"width: 100%; height: 200px;\" src=\"https:\/\/player.captivate.fm\/episode\/1e6fe718-0dc5-4053-8dee-d0fba08b955b\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless=\"\"><\/iframe><\/div><p>Anna Langthorn says she\u2019s lucky. Her baby was born between COVID surges. Back in November, delta had waned. Omicron was on the horizon, but not here yet. But any new parent can tell you: the medical appointments don\u2019t stop after birth. There are a slew of them afterward \u2014 a few days out, a few weeks out, then a few months out.<\/p><p>\u201cSo we had this telehealth visit where, basically, they went through screener questions \u2014 you know, to ask about developmental milestones and anything that would be a red flag,\u201d she said. \u201cBut we didn&#8217;t get any of like the hands on care, like weighing or measuring or her vaccines.\u201d<\/p><p>By the time those later appointments hit for Langthorn and her daughter, omicron had taken hold and filled the state\u2019s ERs, ICUs and hospitals. OU Health shifted to virtual appointments.<\/p><p>\u201cWe still don&#8217;t really know how much she weighs,\u201d she said. \u201cShe could not be growing quickly enough. I don&#8217;t think that&#8217;s the case. She&#8217;s growing out of her clothes pretty quickly, so I&#8217;m not worried about it. But a different family, different circumstances, there could be a baby who who is at risk of something and parents wouldn&#8217;t necessarily know because they haven&#8217;t had access to what&#8217;s supposed to be standard care.\u201d<\/p><p>Oklahoma medical professionals are raising concerns that simple appointments like this are going unscheduled. OU Health\u2019s Dr. Dale Bratzler says those delays make sense, but they\u2019re a threat to patient health.<\/p><p>Some of the problem is that the system itself has been over-extended.<\/p><p>\u201cSome of those services got shut down or were not being done as often,\u201d Bratzler said.<\/p><p>And, like in Langthorn\u2019s case, systems have relied on telehealth \u2014 a good, but not perfect, substitute.<br \/>\nSome of it has also been reasonably self-imposed.<\/p><p>\u201cYou know, I think they heeded the warnings to kind of, \u2018Stay home, \u2018Don&#8217;t go out,\u2019 \u2018Don&#8217;t put yourself in harm&#8217;s way and go into a healthcare facility,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt seems like a great way to put yourself in harm&#8217;s way. So I think there were a lot of people that just deferred scheduling or following up around preventive services.\u201d<\/p><p>Again, these delays can cause severe issues down the road.<\/p><p>\u201cEverything we&#8217;ve talked about lately has been COVID related,\u201d Bratzler said. \u201cBut whether we like it or not, cardiovascular disease and cancer are still the leading causes of death in this country \u2014 even more than COVID was. And indeed, I think a lot of us are concerned that people have put off routine preventive services, cancer screenings, other things that will be important to both prevention of disease but also early detection of disease.\u201d<\/p><p>Doctors like Bratzler are concerned about the effect this could have on individuals. Public health officials, such as Interim Commissioner of Health Keith Reed, are concerned about the effect this could have on communities.<\/p><p>\u201cI would venture to guess if we if we look forward, you know, five, 10 years down the road, and we look back at our health status for this period of time and maybe the next year or so, that there&#8217;s going to be a real blip on the screen that you&#8217;re going to be able to point to and say, \u2018OK, that was an impact of COVID on a population, and it was manifest in multiple ways,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p><p>He says that in better times \u2013 you know, when we\u2019re not in the worst public health crisis in a century \u2014 community health initiatives like routine screenings are the kinds of things agencies like his focus on full time.<\/p><p>\u201cThat&#8217;s one reason we&#8217;re launching some mobile units to try to really reinvigorate the health screening and the health access in the communities working with our partners in the health care system across the state,\u201d he said.<\/p><p>In the meantime, he and other medical professionals are urging Oklahomans to go ahead and get those routine checkups when they\u2019re available.<\/p><p><em>StateImpact will continue looking at the effect the pandemic has had on health access across the state. For more, check back at www.stateimpactoklahoma.org.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Anna Langthorn says she\u2019s lucky. Her baby was born between COVID surges. Back in November, delta had waned. Omicron was on the horizon, but not here yet. But any new parent can tell you: the medical appointments don\u2019t stop after birth. There are a slew of them afterward \u2014 a few days out, a few [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":213,"featured_media":34589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34588"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/213"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34588"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34592,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34588\/revisions\/34592"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}