Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

49 QUALITY IMPROVEMENT & MEASUREMENT US life expectancy falls for 2nd straight year By Mackenzie Bean L ife expectancy in the U.S. fell again in 2021 after a dramatic drop in 2020, according to research pub- lished April 7 in the medical preprint server MedRxiv. CDC data shows U.S. life expectancy dropped from 78.8 years in 2019 to 77 years in 2020. The latest study, which has not been peer-reviewed, suggests life expec- tancy fell by another 0.4 years, or 4.8 months, in 2021 during the pandemic's second year. "Although the introduction and availability of effec- tive vaccines were expected to curb U.S. mortality rates in 2021, slow vaccine uptake and the spread of the delta variant produced large surges in mortality," researchers wrote. In 2020, Black and Hispanic populations saw the largest decrease in life expectancy. Researchers found these rates held steady in 2021, with only the white popula- tion experiencing a drop in life expectancy. n UC Davis Health program aims to eliminate organ transplant disparities By Naomi Diaz S acramento, Calif.-based UC Davis Health launched a program aimed at improving education regard- ing organ donation access and transplantation in underserved communities. The project partnered with precision medicine compa- ny CareDx to create educational content developed by a patient-centered committee, data science and digital technology to improve awareness about the need for organ donations in underserved communities, accord- ing to an April 21 press release. The project also aims to better inform patients in those communities about health interventions that may help them avoid end-stage organ failure and a transplant. The pilot program, supported by CareDx and other patient advocacy groups, is designed to be scalable so it can be adopted by healthcare providers across the country. n Hospitals challenge Lown Institute's community benefits rankings By Kelly Gooch T he American Hospital Association slammed the Lown Institute's report on hospital community benefits, which ranks organizations based on how their charity care and community investment spending stacks up against the value of their tax exemption. e report from the nonpartisan healthcare think tank was released April 12. For the rankings, researchers calculated fair share spending for more than 1,800 hospitals across 275 nonprofit hospital systems based on hospital tax filings from fiscal year ending 2018 or 2019, whichever was the most recent year available. Each system's spending on charity care and community invest- ment was compared to the value of its tax exemption. Systems were considered to have a fair share deficit if their spending on charity care and community investment was less than the value of their tax exemption. ey were considered to have a fair share surplus if their spending on charity care and community investment exceeded the value of their tax exemption. Rick Pollack, president and CEO of the AHA, said in an April 12 blog post that the Lown Institute report is "an obvious example of relying on preconceived notions and faulty methodology to draw inaccurate conclusions." Specifically, Mr. Pollack said the report ignores certain categories of community investment, such as researching lifesaving treatments and cures and training and educating the healthcare workforce. "It overlooks many of the essential contributions hospitals make to their communities that are critically important, especially during the pandemic," he said. "For example, a number of hospitals invested considerable funds and expertise into developing COVID-19 tests aer setbacks from public health agencies. Hospitals also expanded treatment capacity especially as COVID-19 cases surged, established vaccine clinics and launched outreach campaigns to ensure everyone has access to vaccines, to name just a few examples." Mr. Pollack also said financial assistance is not the only part of a hospital's community benefit, and the Lown Institute does not include all the services hospitals provide to their communities, such as programs that address housing needs, accessing nutritious food, educational and wellness programs, health screenings, transporta- tion for patients, and other programs and services to address the needs that affect people's health and address the social determinants of health. Additionally, he said hospitals take on many uncompensated and unreimbursed costs, and they subsidize costs related to many essen- tial services they provide, such as burn and neonatal units. "America's hospitals and health systems do more than any other part of the healthcare field to support vulnerable patients and communities: Our doors are always open, regardless of a patient's ability to pay," Mr. Pollack concluded. "In total, hospitals of all types have provided nearly $745 billion in uncompensated care to patients since 2000." n

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