ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: The conditions under which people live and work and how those conditions affect health are known as social determinants of health. They are impacted by disparities of wealth, opportunity, and other societal resources. This article examines how these disparities have influenced morbidity and mortality in minority people of color during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/ethnology , COVID-19/mortality , Health Status Disparities , Social Determinants of Health , Black or African American/statistics & numerical data , Humans , Minority Groups/statistics & numerical data , Morbidity , Socioeconomic Factors , United States/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Unintentional perioperative hypothermia has been shown to cause serious patient complications and, thus, to increase health care costs. In 2009, an evidence-based practice improvement project produced a significant decrease in unintentional perioperative hypothermia in colorectal surgical patients through monitoring of OR ambient room temperature. Project leaders engaged all interdisciplinary stakeholders in the original project, which facilitated the sustainability of the intervention method. An important aspect of sustainability is ongoing monitoring and evaluation of a new intervention method. Therefore, continued evaluation of outcomes of the protocol developed in 2009 was scheduled at specific time points after the initial small test of change with colorectal patients. This article focuses on how attention to sustainability factors during implementation of an improvement project led to the sustainability of a protocol for monitoring OR ambient room temperature with all types of surgical patients five years after the initial project.
