Tackling Another COVID-19 Pandemic Disparity: Distance from Major Academic Medical Centers Encumbers Emergency and Critical Care Physician Surge Capacity.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a number of deficiencies in our US health care system, most notably the disproportionately poor health care outcomes in Latinx and African-American populations.1-3 My experiences over the past two months have shed light on another disparity - the enormous differential in emergency and critical care physician surge capacity between cities with robust medical academic institutions and communities that are situated far away from large medical schools.