Journal of general internal medicine
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused massive disruption in usual care delivery patterns in hospitals across the USA, and highlighted long-standing inequities in health care delivery and outcomes. Its effect on hospital operations, and whether the magnitude of the effect differed for hospitals serving historically marginalized populations, is unknown. ⋯ COVID-19 significantly disrupted the operations of hospitals across the USA, with hospitals serving patients in poverty and racial and ethnic minorities reporting relatively similar care disruption as non-safety-net and lower-minority hospitals.
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The burden of COVID-19 on healthcare workers (HCWs) is reported to be increasing, yet the psychometric scales now in use evaluate only single aspects; few measure the pandemic-specific burden on HCWs comprehensively. ⋯ The psychometrically sound questionnaire we developed to measure pandemic-specific burdens for HCWs provides an understanding of comprehensive burdens on HCWs and may serve to evaluate interventions to reduce the burdens.
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Increasing medical school faculty diversity is an urgent priority. National Institutes of Health (NIH) diversity supplements, which provide funding and career development opportunities to individuals underrepresented in research, are an important mechanism to increase faculty diversity. ⋯ Medical schools may be missing an opportunity to address the continuing shortage of individuals historically underrepresented in biomedical science and should consider additional mechanisms to enhance diversity supplement utilization.