We held our very first virtual Patient General Meeting on May 18th, after spending over a month to teach patients how to get onto Zoom. While we had recruited nearly 250 patients across different languages (English, Cantonese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, Korean, Tagalog and Khmer), we had approximately 100 patients attended the meeting (40% attendance). The meeting was simultaneously interpreted in the Asian languages, with patients being directed to their respective language channel when they first got into the meeting. During the meeting, we shared about the new leadership (CEO and President), provided updates on medical, dental and mental health, and shared about our Community Healing Initiative to promote support for community members impacted by violence and safety concerns. We provided time for questions and answers. We also had each language group break out into groups to discuss issues around telehealth, community safety, and residential migration due to affordability and safety concerns.

Overall, we received positive feedback on the meeting; patients felt that AHS really cared about them to convene this type of meeting. This is a historic moment for AHS to launch efforts to promote patient communication while encouraging patients to improve on their digital literacy. As one longtime staff interpreter shared “AHS makes the undoable, doable.”