Tracking the Uneven Outcomes of COVID-19 on Racial and Ethnic Groups: Implications for Health Policy.

The socioeconomic shocks of the first COVID-19 pandemic wave disproportionately affected vulnerable groups. But did that trend continue to hold during the Delta and Omicron waves? Leveraging data from the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, this paper examines whether demographic inequalities persisted across the waves of COVID-19 infections. The current study utilizes fixed effects regressions to isolate the marginal relationships between socioeconomic factors with case counts and death counts.

The physician CEO advantage and hospital performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: capacity utilization and patient satisfaction.

Purpose: Prior studies have shown that physician-led hospitals have several advantages over non-physician-led hospitals. This study seeks to test whether these advantages also extend to periods of extreme disruptions such as the COVID-19 pandemic, which affect bed availability and hospital utilization.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors utilize a bounded Tobit estimation to identify differences in patient satisfaction rates and in-hospital utilization rates of top-rated hospitals in the United States.

Throwing caution to the wind: How hurricanes affect COVID-19 spread.

This study exploits the pathway of Hurricane Laura to assess its impact on the spread of COVID-19. Using US hospital data on confirmed and suspected adult COVID-19 cases, we find average daily cases per week rose by more than 12% primarily in tropical storm-affected counties in subsequent weeks. We suspect the key mechanisms involve constraints on social distancing for two reasons.

Demographics matter: the potentially disproportionate effect of COVID-19 on hospital ratings.

Objective: To identify how features of the community in which a hospital serves differentially relate to its patients' experiences based on the quality of that hospital.

Design: A Finite Mixture Model (FMM) is used to uncover a mix of two latent groups of hospitals that differ in quality. In the FMM, a multinomial logistic equation relates hospital-level factors to the odds of being in either group.

Provider-patient communication and hospital ratings: perceived gaps and forward thinking about the effects of COVID-19.

Objectives: To highlight clinical and operational issues, identify factors that shape patient responses in Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) and test the correlations between composite measures and overall hospital ratings.

Design: Responses to HCAHPS surveys were used in a partial correlation analysis to ascertain those HCAHPS composite measures that most relate to overall hospital ratings. The linear mean scores for the composite measures and individual and global items were analyzed with descriptive analysis and correlation analysis via JMP and SPSS statistical software.

The value of early physical maturity to young adult labor market outcomes.

Puberty is the most important developmental milestone closely preceding a young adult's labor market decisions. Thus, we examine the variation in the timing of physical maturity during adolescence to isolate its association with employment and hourly wages for US young adults. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health data, we find an early maturity premium of about 6% for females and 8% for males, but no employment advantage, in excess of gains from height and physical attractiveness.

Doctor-patient communication: a review and a rationale for using an assessment framework.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the extent to which improving doctor-patient communication (DPC) can address and alleviate many healthcare delivery inefficiencies.

Design/methodology/approach: The authors survey causes and costs of miscommunication including perceptual gaps between how physicians believe they perform their communicative duties vs how patients feel and highlight thresholds such as the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) used by hospitals to identify health outcomes and improve DPC.

Findings: The authors find that DPC correlates with better and more accurate care as well as with more satisfied patients.