Surviving the Coronavirus May Depend on Which Hospital You Get To Choose

In the fight against this historic pandemic, the dichotomy between private and public health sectors has been a defining factor.

Photo by Daan Stevens on Unsplash

The mortality rate of Covid-19 patients in some of the public hospitals in the poorer sections of New York City can be as much as three times higher than that of the more elitist private ones. Why does this happen?

The government-run facilities are the ones most likely to deal with infected people who are either covered by Medicare, Medicaid or, in some cases, have no insurance at all. The private sector, on the other hand, caters to the wealthier citizens who are either covered through their employers or privately. A New York Times investigative team that reported on how each of the 47 hospitals in the city is managing the crisis found a significant difference in the amount of resources and care available in the two sectors and believe that many deaths could have been prevented under different circumstances.

The first thing to be noticed is the difference between available nurses, doctors, overall staff and quality of equipment, which were much lower in public hospitals. Understaffing has already been scientifically proven to relate to an increase in patients’…