Issue link: https://beckershealthcare.uberflip.com/i/1273352
35 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT US slow to address racial health disparities involving COVID-19, Washington Post finds By Mackenzie Bean P olicymakers and public health experts nationwide failed to identify racial health disparities as a crucial risk factor for COVID-19 early on in the pandemic, according to e Washington Post. e publication interviewed nearly 60 public health experts, lawmakers and community leaders about their response to the pandemic in late March. Most leaders were focused on risk factors like international travel, age and chronic health conditions, and few states were publicly tracking race-related data about the virus, the Post found. Many of the first COVID-19 testing sites also opened in whiter, more affluent areas. Very few of the education campaigns launched by local governments targeted black com- munities. In some cases, these governments allegedly ignored requests from community activists and black leaders to implement measures to help protect black communities, according to the Post. Many leaders and public health experts were not aware the virus was disproportionately affecting black Americans due to inadequate data and reporting processes. State and feder- al officials told the Post that a lack of available tests and the "unprecedented nature of the virus" complicated pandemic response efforts. "I cannot say we specifically had race in mind," Garlin Gilchrist II, lieutenant governor of Michigan, told the Post. Michigan created a task force to boost testing access in black communities in late April. By that time, Mr. Gilchrist knew 16 people who died of COVID-19, most of whom were black. n 76% of COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma improve, small study finds By Anuja Vaidya M ost COVID-19 patients treated with blood plasma from recovered coronavirus patients show improvement, a small study found. Conducted at Houston Methodist Hospital, the study includes 25 severely ill COVID-19 patients who were given blood plasma from recovered patients, known as convalescent plasma. The study period was from March 28 to April 14, and the study was published in The American Journal of Pathology. Researchers found that 19 out of 25 patients (76 percent) showed im- provement by the end of the study period, and 11 of the patients were discharged from the hospital. They did not observe any adverse events as a result of plasma transfusion. Researchers are considering conducting a randomized controlled trial at Houston Methodist to examine other variables of the treatment, such as timing of the transfusion. n 7 things to know about COVID-19 patients undergoing surgery By Anuja Vaidya C OVID-19 patients getting surgery may face several risks, including postoperative lung complications seen in about half of the patients in an international study published May 29. The study, published in The Lancet, was conducted at 235 hospitals in 24 countries. It included 1,128 patients who had surgery between Jan. 1 and March 31. All patients had COVID-19, confirmed either seven days before or 30 days after their surgery. Seven study findings: 1. Of 1,128 patients, 268 patients (23.8 percent) died. 2. Of the 268 patients who died, 19.1 percent were undergoing elective surgery, and 29.2 percent had two or more underlying conditions. 3. About 34 percent of the patients who died were on a ventilator. 4. Lung complications occurred in 577 (51.2 percent) of the patients. 5. About 40.4 percent of patients who had postoperative lung compli- cations had pneumonia, and 14.4 percent had acute respiratory distress syndrome. 6. A little over 21 percent of the patients with lung complications needed mechanical ventilation. 7. Overall, 219 of the patients with lung complications (38 percent) died. n