Health Equity

Streamlining patient flow would not only improve patient care and reduce costs, but is also focal to achieving health equity, wrote Eugene Litvak, PhD, Mark Smith, MD, and Harvey FiIneberg, MD, PhD, for The Hill Oct. 7.

Here are five health equity studies Becker's has covered since Sept. 16:

Addressing health disparities in the U.S. will require a multi-front approach, including data collection and financial investments, according to an Oct. 4 report from the Healthcare Leadership Council.

One week after the mayor of Atlanta blocked the redevelopment of Wellstar Atlanta Medical Center, a city councilman proposed repurposing it as an equity center, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Oct. 4. 

Healthcare access and data company DexCare has been selected to work on a three-year, $40 million Amazon Web Services health equity initiative.

Chicago health systems are hiring specialists to improve patients' health literacy, a skill in which only 12 percent of Americans are proficient, Chicago Health reported Sept. 29. 

Black COVID-19 patients may have faced 4.5-hour treatment delays due to pulse oximeters' inability to accurately read their blood oxygen levels, according to researchers at Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health. 

The same small group of San Francisco, Calif.-residents — most of them homeless — frequently cycle through the city's hospitals and criminal justice system. The cost is high and the health outcomes are poor, according to a recent study reported…

Researchers at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff received a $21 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, part of the National Institutes of Health, KNAU reported Sept. 28.

Although Black and Hispanic men are disproportionately hospitalized for COVID-19, white women pay visit COVID recovery centers most often, leading leaders to question where underserved populations are getting post-acute care.