Thread by @brooklyn_grows

🗣️📣New Yorkers📢🔊

NYC's Vital Stats published July '19 & IDK any reporters on the "infant mortality" beat.

The mortality rate for Very Low Birth Weight infants of Asian descent is on the rise& the HIGHEST of any race/ ethnicity. 1/

Black Low Birth Weight (LBW) infants still have the highest mortality rate, but Asian& Pacific Islanders were there only racial/ ethnic category to see a RISE in LBW mortality.

(Very LBW<1500g, LBW<2500g) 2/

Most babies born< 2500g (5lbs 8oz) end up in the NICU.

ALL babies born< 1500g (3lbs 4oz) end up in the NICU.

"Given the high concentration of black infants in few hospitals, poorer quality of care can generate population-level health disparities.”-@EileenLake_Penn 3/

@EileenLake_Penn "Although maternal factors are strongly r/t the probability of preterm birth, previous research has not found them to be predictors of very preterm outcomes in the NICU. In contrast, a significant proportion of the explained disparity could be attributed to BIRTH HOSPITAL... 4/

@EileenLake_Penn "...suggesting that hospital quality DOES CONTRIBUTE to ethnic Very Preterm Birth morbidity and mortality gaps." -@LizHowellMD 5/

@EileenLake_Penn @LizHowellMD Given the concentration of Asians/ Asian Americans in relatively few neighborhoods of NYC, I suspect a similar patten holds true:

The increase in mortality of Asian-American NICU patients reflects worsening care conditions in a handful of "high Asian-serving" NICUs. 6/

@EileenLake_Penn @LizHowellMD Flushing Hospital was bottom 10 out of 2,639 hospitals nationwide that same year for patient safety (2017), so maybe we should start looking there. 7/

@EileenLake_Penn @LizHowellMD I worked in the NICU at the OTHER NY hospital in bottom 10 for safety @sunydownstate, here's what was going on:

Structural racism➡️
Chronic resource deprivation➡️
Poor clinical care➡️
Population wide health disparities.

#BlackBabiesMatter

brooklyngrows.com/blog/2019/8/31… 8/

@EileenLake_Penn @LizHowellMD @sunydownstate Conditions at hospitals- especially public ones- are a reflection of the will of the society in which they are situated. New Yorkers, please get involved!! 9/9

#BlackMamasMatter #nicuAwarenessMonth #PassNYHealth #TRRC

brooklyngrows.com/get-involved

@EileenLake_Penn @LizHowellMD @sunydownstate Adding more data when I find it. From 2009-2014, Flushing Hospital had the highest "Observed to Expected Mortality Ratio" (eg- Worst mortality rate after adjusting for risk in patients/ conditions a hospital treats.)

nysna.org/sites/default/…