Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
American Medical Association Declares Racism A Public Health Threat
Modern Healthcare: AMA Calls Racism A 'Public Health Threat'
The American Medical Association Monday voted to recognize systemic racism and interpersonal bias by healthcare workers as a "serious" threat to public health that hinders efforts to achieve health equity and reduce disparities among minority populations. The resolution, approved during a special meeting of the AMA House of Delegates, calls for the organization to acknowledge the role both historic and current "racist medical practices" have played in harming marginalized communities and for the group to develop a set of best practices to help stakeholders to address the effects of racism on patients and providers. (Ross Johnson, 11/16)
KHN: What Doctors Aren’t Always Taught: How To Spot Racism In Health Care
Betial Asmerom, a fourth-year medical student at the University of California-San Diego, didn’t have the slightest interest in becoming a doctor when she was growing up. As an adolescent, she helped her parents — immigrants from Eritrea who spoke little English — navigate the health care system in Oakland, California. She saw physicians who were disrespectful to her family and uncaring about treatment for her mother’s cirrhosis, hypertension and diabetes. (Lawrence, 11/17)
More health care personnel news —
CIDRAP: Fund To Aid Families Of Health Workers Killed By COVID-19
The Saint Paul & Minnesota Foundation (SPMF) today announced the creation of the Frontline Families Fund and launch of the frontlinefamilies.org website in partnership with epidemiologist Michael Osterholm, PhD, MPH, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota and newly appointed member of President-elect Joe Biden's coronavirus task force. The Frontline Families Fund is designed to support the families of nearly 1,400 US frontline healthcare workers who have lost their lives to COVID-19. (Kuebelbeck Paulsen, 11/16)
The Washington Post: Some Places Were Short On Nurses Before The Virus. The Pandemic Is Making It Much Worse.
In Bismarck, N.D., where Leslie McKamey is a nurse in the emergency department at CHI St. Alexius Health, caregivers have been so overwhelmed by covid-19 patients in the past few weeks that ambulances are sometimes diverted to the other major hospital in town. Until that hospital, Sanford Medical Center, fills up as well. Then there is no choice but to treat the flood of sick people who have made the state the worst coronavirus hot spot in this unprecedented surge of the pandemic. (Bernstein, 11/16)
