Background: Healthcare disparities have existed for decades, yet it took a global pandemic to put this emergency into the spotlight. The Joint Commission states “health related social needs” (HRSN) are the root cause of many disparities. HRSN encompasses a wide spectrum including inability to pay bills, poor access to transportation, and lack of housing. At [...]

Background: Healthcare disparities have existed for decades, yet it took a global pandemic to put this emergency into the spotlight. The Joint Commission states “health related social needs” (HRSN) are the root cause of many disparities. HRSN encompasses a wide spectrum including inability to pay bills, poor access to transportation, and lack of housing. At [...]

Background: Equity is an essential domain of healthcare quality [1] but is rarely addressed within quality measurement programs. Quality initiatives, without explicit equity focus, may exacerbate underlying disparities.[2]To address this historic lack of focus on equity, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid (CMS) now provides confidential reports to hospitals on two disparity metrics for Medicare [...]

Background: Hospital-associated disability (HAD) is the new loss of ability to complete one or more activities of daily living without assistance after hospital discharge and occurs in 31% of hospitalized patients. HAD and low mobility during hospitalization are associated with higher risk of readmission, permanent disability, new institutionalization, and death. Physical therapy (PT) is invaluable [...]

Background: A frequently cited challenge to parenting as a clinician relates to family leave policies. Taking parental leave may negatively affect clinicians’ income, research, career, and relationships with colleagues. Parental leave policies may be unfair, vague, or poorly communicated. We sought to describe the parental leave experiences and approaches used to support parental leave and [...]

Background: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial and ethnic minorities have experienced disparities in infection rates, hospitalization, and death. Monoclonal antibodies (Mab) decrease hospitalization when given to ambulatory non-severe high-risk patients within 10 day of symptom onset. Disparities in care related to Mabs are not well understood. We describe experience from Mab infusion [...]

Background: Transportation is a social determinant of health that can be a barrier to care and exacerbate disparities. During the COVID pandemic, access to transport was further diminished.Monoclonal antibodies (Mab) are associated decreased hospitalization in high-risk COVID patients. Until 9/2022, the $2000 cost per dose of Mabs was paid by the federal government. However transportation [...]

Background: Patients with Limited English Proficiency (LEP) face multiple barriers to care and are at risk for worse health outcomes compared to similar patients with English Proficiency (EP). In sepsis, a common diagnosis and major cause of mortality in the US, the association of LEP with health outcomes has not been widely explored. We aimed [...]

Background: Pain is assessed by nurses through either reported or observed intensity. Self-reported assessments, specifically a numeric score, are the gold standard and preferred to behavioral assessments. Disparities in the assessment and management of pain across race, ethnicity, and language status are prevalent, but we do not know how actual numeric pain scores vary and [...]

Background: Assessing and treating pain in older adults is challenging. Although having patients self-report pain on a numeric scale is the recommended approach, age-associated conditions such as dementia, delirium, and impaired vision or hearing can prevent patients from effectively communicating their symptoms. Older patients are also at risk of adverse effects from commonly used analgesics [...]