There Have Been At Least 3,795 Hate Incidents Against Asian Americans During The Pandemic, A New Report Shows

"Time and time again, we’re seen as outsiders to be excluded, incarcerated, deported," said Russell Jeung, cofounder of Stop AAPI Hate.

Julia Reinstein BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 16, 2021

Ringo Chiu / Getty Images
A protester holds a sign at a Los Angeles rally on Feb. 20 to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence after 84-year-old Thai immigrant Vicha Ratanapakdee was killed in a random assault.


Throughout the past year, Asian Americans have had to survive more than just a deadly pandemic: They've also faced a rise in verbal and physical attacks as a result of racist scapegoating over COVID-19.

A new report by the organization Stop AAPI Hate shows there have been at least 3,795 reported hate incidents targeting Asian Americans in just the past year alone, from March 19, 2020, to Feb. 28.

Though the report does not include numbers from previous years for comparison, other data has shown an extreme uptick in these attacks. Though overall hate crimes decreased by 7% in 16 major US cities in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes increased 149%, first spiking in March and April when COVID-19 began its spread, according to California State University's Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism.

Of the incidents documented by Stop AAPI Hate, 68% involved verbal harassment, and 11% involved physical assault. Shunning, defined as the "deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans," made up 20% of reports. Civil rights violations, such as discrimination in the workplace or being refused service by a business, made up 8.5% of reports, with another 6.8% being for online harassment.

Women reported attacks at more than twice the rate of men, and Chinese Americans numbered over 42% of the victims.


Ringo Chiu / Getty Images

Because the report analyzed solely self-reported attacks, the actual numbers are likely even higher.

"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face," the report says.

Racism against Asian Americans has exploded in the past year, at both the individual level and in the country's highest offices. Throughout the pandemic, Donald Trump repeatedly pushed blame for COVID-19 onto China, calling it the "China Virus" and "Kung Flu." He continued to do so, and denied it was racist, even after a reporter questioned him on the increase in attacks on Chinese Americans.

The new report was published just weeks after a San Francisco man was arrested on assault charges for allegedly pushing three Asian Americans to the ground, including one who was 91. One of the others he attacked, a 55-year-old woman, was knocked out.

These assaults were just three of many that have been recently reported across the US. In January, 84-year-old Thai immigrant Vicha Ratanapakdee died of a brain hemorrhage after a random attacker slammed him to the ground in San Francisco. Throughout the pandemic, Asian Americans have been chemically burned, mocked and robbed on video, and kicked in the face. In at least two other instances, including one of a family of three, the attackers have allegedly tried to kill the victims.

The racism Asian Americans are facing now is keenly reminiscent of the "yellow peril" stereotype that first swept the US in the 1850s, Russell Jeung, cofounder of Stop AAPI Hate and a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, told BuzzFeed News.


"It’s the fear that Asians would come and overcome the West with their hordes [of] racialized, diseased bodies, and take over — dominate," Jeung said. "In the 19th century, that fear was stoked with the diseases of smallpox, cholera, and leprosy, and [there was] the fear of Chinese taking away white workers’ jobs, so they passed the Chinese Exclusion Act."

A century and a half ago, this stereotype was just as dangerous to Asian Americans as it is now, he added. "My great-grandparents' home in Monterey, they had a village of 200 people, and they were burned down and burned out and had to move to San Francisco’s Chinatown to avoid the racism."

It's part of a pattern across US history, he said.

"We had Japanese American incarceration during World War II, [and] we had Islamophobia after 9/11," Jeung said. "Time and time again, we’re seen as outsiders to be excluded, incarcerated, deported."



CBS News@CBSNews

Biden calls out the rise in hate crimes against Asian Americans during the pandemic, saying they're "attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated" "They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America. It's wrong, it's un-American and it must stop"01:12 AM - 12 Mar 2021
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In a speech on March 11, President Joe Biden condemned "vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who've been harassed, attacked, blamed, and scapegoated."

"They are forced to live in fear for their lives just walking down streets in America," he said. "It's wrong, it's un-American, and it must stop."


Jeung said he was glad to see Biden speaking out on the attacks, and he hopes to see the president's words translated into concrete actions, such as expanding ethnic studies education and civil rights protections.

The Stop AAPI Hate report includes details of some of the victims' stories, which include being harassed in public, coughed or spat on, called slurs, and several incidents in which people were told to "go back" to China.

"A white man catcalled me, then aggressively followed me down the block, and got
inches from my face and yelled 'Ch*nk!' and 'C*nt!' after realizing I was Asian," one person from Brooklyn reported. "Lots of neighbors were standing outside their homes and no one intervened."


"My boyfriend and I were riding the metro into DC," another person, from Annandale, Virginia, said. "When on the escalator in the transfer station, a man repeatedly punched my back and pushed past us. At the top, he circled back toward us, followed us, repeatedly shouted 'Chinese b**ch' at me, fake coughed
at, and physically threatened us."


In some cases, the victims reported being conspicuously shunned or avoided.

"I came into the coffee shop at Mercato and people started leaving the area where I sat one by one," one person, from Naples, Florida, said. "People started coming in and they sat on the other side of the coffee shop away from me. I became isolated on one side of the coffee shop."

A Car Drove Into A Homeless Encampment In California, Killing Three People

"We train for this, but there’s just no way to prepare for something that’s this devastating."

Amber Jamieson BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on March 15, 2021

Gregory Bull / AP
A car involved in a deadly crash sits at the scene on March 15, 2021, in San Diego.

Three people were killed Monday after a car veered into an encampment of unsheltered people in San Diego, authorities said.

The incident took place around 9 a.m. in a tunnel beneath a bridge in downtown, where many people live in tents and other temporary shelters on sidewalks. Nine people in all were struck, with two of the survivors left critically injured.

Police arrested the driver, 71-year-old Craig Voss, on suspicion of three counts of vehicular manslaughter and a felony DUI.


Gregory Bull / AP
Lisa Brotzman, right, stands with Terry Goffigan at the scene of the deadly accident on March 15 in San Diego.

“Our crews found, obviously, a tragic incident under the bridge," San Diego Fire Chief Colin Stowell said at a news conference.

The three people who were killed died at the scene, he added.

"We train for this, but there’s just no way to prepare for something that’s this devastating," the fire chief said. “This was a very tragic, tragic accident that will make an impact on a lot of lives.”


NBC San Diego / Via nbcsandiego.com

One witness, Ronnie Williams, described the horrifying event to NBC San Diego.

“I turned around and I saw yellow headlights and next thing you know, I was almost getting sucked under the car. And then I managed to pull my leg out from under the car right here," said Williams, who is also unsheltered. “You could see everything popping up, going in the air, dragging — it was, it was very loud. It was like something you see in a movie scene."

Officials noted that the incident highlighted the need for more permanent housing options to get people off the street.

“The street is not a home and this tragedy further highlights the dangers of living on the streets,” Hanan Scrapper, the San Diego regional director of PATH, an organization working to end homelessness, said in a statement.

City Council President Stephen Whitburn said the deadly crash was "stark evidence of the need to find permanent solutions to the homelessness crisis so that no San Diegans are forced to seek shelter in unsafe places such as under bridges and in tunnels that vehicles pass through."

Global campaign calls on apparel brands to pay their workers, reform broken industry



Today, MSN joins with more than 200 trade union and civil society organizations in over 40 countries in launching the #PayYourWorkers #RespectLabourRights campaign.

Other Canadian endorsers of the campaign include Above Ground, Canadian Network on Corporate Accountability (CNCA), Centre International de Solidarité Ouvrière (CISO), Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF), Oxfam Canada, Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC), SHARE, Steelworkers Humanity Fund and USW, and Workers United Canada Council.

As the health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to be felt by vulnerable workers in Canada, the pandemic is pushing millions of already low-paid garment workers around the world deeper into poverty and hunger. A year into the crisis, many apparel brands have returned to profitability and some have even raked in record level earnings, while workers in their supply chains struggle to survive.

PayYourWorkers #RespectLabourRights is calling on apparel retailers and brands to contribute funds to sustain the incomes of the workers who make their products throughout the pandemic, ensure respect for their right to organise and bargain collectively, and sign onto a severance guarantee fund so that workers are never left penniless if their factories go bankrupt in the future. In this week of action, the brand targets are Amazon, Nike and Next, a UK fast fashion retailer. As the campaign progresses, other brands will also be targeted.

The campaign launch follows the release last week of a major report from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), which found that 16 brands, including Mark’s (Canadian Tire), linked to unpaid wages and benefits in supplier factories in various countries, had made a combined $10 billion in profits in the second half of 2020.

PayYourWorkers.org, the campaign website, was launched today and is available in eight languages. We invite you to join the campaign, sign the petition and add your organization’s name to the list of endorsers. Read MSN’s media release on the campaign here.

Read the BHRRC Report: Wage theft and pandemic profits: The right to a living wage for garment workers, available here.

We’ll keep you updated as the campaign progresses.

Lynda Yanz


The Maquila Solidarity Network (MSN) is a labour and women's rights organization that supports the efforts of workers in global supply chains to win improved wages and working conditions. Please consider supporting MSN's important work by making an online contribution or by sending a cheque to the address below.

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Canada

Study uncovers safety concerns with some air purifiers

Joint university research finds some air purifiers may actually increase harmful airborne chemicals

COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: THE ENVIRONMENTAL TEST CHAMBER WHERE RESEARCHERS CONDUCTED AIR PURIFIER EXPERIMENTS. (A) IS THE EXTERIOR WITH INSTRUMENTS SET UP OUTSIDE, AND (B) IS INSIDE THE CHAMBER WITH MOCK-UP FURNISHINGS AND MATERIALS.... view more 

CREDIT: ILLINOIS TECH

The market for air purifiers is booming, but a new study has found that some air cleaning technologies marketed for COVID-19 may be ineffective and have unintended health consequences.

The study, authored by researchers at Illinois Tech, Portland State University, and Colorado State University, found that cleaning up one harmful air pollutant can create a suite of others.

Both chamber and field tests found that an ionizing device led to a decrease in some volatile organic compounds (VOCs) including xylenes, but an increase in others, most prominently oxygenated VOCs (e.g., acetone, ethanol) and toluene, substances commonly found in paints, paint strippers, aerosol sprays and pesticides. According to the EPA, exposure to VOCs has been linked to a range of health effects from eye, nose and throat irritation, headaches, loss of coordination and nausea, to damage to liver, kidney and central nervous system, and some organics can cause cancer in animals, some are suspected or known to cause cancer in humans.

The study, published this week in Building and Environment, mimicked real-world operating conditions for these ionization devices to test the effectiveness and potential to form chemical byproducts in environments similar to where we all live, work, and learn.

One of the most popular types of air purifiers on the market right now are ion-generating systems, including 'bipolar ionization' devices that electrically charge particles so they settle out of the air faster, and are generally marketed to kill bacteria, fungi, and viruses.

Understandably, the "virus-killing" capability has drawn attention and been heavily featured in advertising over the past year and led to a flood of new and revamped products on the market.

However, the study finds that the air purifier marketplace is fraught with inadequate test standards, confusing terminology, and a lack of peer-reviewed studies of their effectiveness and safety. Unlike air filtration (where air is pushed through a filter to remove airborne pollutants), there has been very little research on the effectiveness and side effects of "additive" air cleaning methods like ionizing devices.

"Manufacturers and third-party test labs commonly demonstrate their product's effectiveness using chamber tests, but these test reports often don't use experimental conditions that could show how the device actually performs in real-world conditions," said Brent Stephens, Chair of the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering at Illinois Tech. "To the extent that there are testing standards for ionization and other devices, those are largely industry-led standards that remain underdeveloped at this point, focused mostly on ensuring just one pollutant, ozone, is not generated during operation."

In everyday operating conditions, ions added to occupied environments such as a school or office building can react with other compounds present in indoor air, which can potentially lead to the formation of harmful byproducts such as formaldehyde and ozone. Ions can also rapidly bind to other gases and spur the formation of new 'ultrafine' particles, which are known air pollutants. But little independent data exists on these mechanisms.

The research team conducted a series of experiments on the operation of a commercially available in-duct bipolar ionization device. Lab tests were conducted with air sampling of particulate matter and gases in a large semi-furnished chamber and in a field test with an ionizer device installed in an air handling unit serving an occupied office building. The research also found that despite small changes in particle concentrations, there was very little net effect on the overall concentration of PM2.5 in the air.

According to the EPA, particulate matter contains microscopic solids or liquid droplets that are so small that they can be inhaled and cause serious health problems. Particles less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, also known as fine particles or PM2.5, pose the greatest risk to health as they can get deep into your lungs and some may even get into your bloodstream. Numerous scientific studies have linked fine particle pollution exposure to a range of health impacts, including premature death in people with heart or lung disease, nonfatal heart attacks, irregular heartbeat, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, irritation of the airways, coughing or difficulty breathing.

Health impacts of air ionizers are largely unknown, although a small number of recent studies give cause for concern. In August 2020, a study concluded that exposure to negative ions was associated with increased systemic oxidative stress levels (a marker of cardiovascular health), and despite reduced indoor particulate matter concentrations, there were no beneficial changes to respiratory health.

Another recent study of air ionizers in school classrooms reduced particulate matter concentrations led to some improvements in respiratory health among 11-14 year old children, the ionizers had an adverse effect on heart rate variability (a measure of cardiovascular health), meaning that any benefit to the lungs came at a cost to the heart.

"We should have a much better understanding of these effects before widespread use of these types of devices," said Delphine Farmer, Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Colorado State University and a co-lead author of the paper.

"Without peer-reviewed research into the health impacts of these devices, we risk substituting one harmful agent for another," said Stephens. "We urge others to follow guidance from organizations like the U.S. EPA and ASHRAE, which generally recommend the use of established, evidence-based measures to clean indoor air, including high efficiency particle filtration and enhanced ventilation, in addition to face coverings and physical distancing, to help reduce airborne transmission of COVID-19."

###

The authors of this research are Yicheng Zeng, Prashik Manwatkar, Marina Beke, Insung Kang, Akram Ali, Mohammad Heidarinejad, and Brent Stephens from Illinois Tech, Aurélie Laguerre and Elliott Gall from Portland State University, and Delphine Farmer from Colorado State University.

Meandering rivers create "counter-point bars" no matter underlying geology

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN

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VIDEO: A SEQUENCE OF SATELLITE IMAGES SHOWING THE CHANGING PATH OF THE MAMORÉ RIVER OF BOLIVIA FROM 1986 -2018. THE SEQUENCE ON THE LEFT IS COLORED TO TRACK THE FORMATION OF... view more 

CREDIT: ZOLTÁN SYLVESTER/ THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN.

It's not uncommon for crescent-shaped swaths of sand to dot the shorelines of meandering rivers. These swaths usually appear along the inner side of a river bend, where the bank wraps around the sandy patch, forming deposits known as a "point bars."

When they appear along an outer bank, which curves the opposite way, they form "counter-point" bars, which are usually interpreted by geoscientists as an anomaly: a sign that something - such as a patch of erosion-resistant rocks - is interfering with the river's usual manner of sediment deposition.

But according to research led by The University of Texas at Austin, counter-point bars are not the oddities they're often made out to be. In fact, they're a perfectly normal part of the meandering process.

"You don't need a resistant substrate, you can get beautiful [counter-point] bars without it," said Zoltán Sylvester, a research scientist at UT's Bureau of Economic Geology who led the study.

The finding suggests that counter-point bars - and the unique geology and ecology associated with them - are more common than previously thought. Building awareness around that fact can help geoscientists be on the lookout for counter-point bars in geological formations deposited by rivers in the past, and understand how they may be influencing the flow of hydrocarbons and water passing though them.

CAPTION

Satellite images of the Mamoré River colored to illustrate changes in flow path and sediment deposition as point bars (red) and counter-point bars (blue). From 2005-2010, the river (dark blue) undergoes a neck cutoff (light blue). This change in flow path causes small and highly curved bends to form (bends 1 and 2). Counter point bars form behind the bend 2 as it migrates downstream.

CREDIT

Sylvester et al.

The research was published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin on March 12.

The co-authors are David Mohrig, a professor at the UT Jackson School of Geosciences; Paul Durkin, a professor at the University of Manitoba; and Stephen Hubbard, a professor at the University of Calgary.

Rivers are constantly on the move. For meandering rivers, this means carving out new paths and reactivating old ones as they snake across a landscape over time.

The researchers observed this behavior in both an idealized computer model and in nature, using satellite photos of a stretch of Bolivia's Mamoré River, which is known for quickly changing its path. The satellite photos captured how the river changed over 32 years, from 1986 - 2018.

In both the model and the Mamoré, counter-point bars appeared. The researchers found that the appearance was linked directly to short, high curvature bends: little spikes in a river's path.

The researchers observed that these spikes frequently form when the river's course is abruptly changed, such as when a new oxbow lake forms through cutoff, or after reconnecting with an old oxbow lake.

But the sharp bends don't stay put, they start migrating in the downstream direction. And as they rapidly move downstream, they create the conditions for sediment to accumulate around the bend as a counter-point bar.

The study shows a number of instances of this happening in the Mamoré. For example, in 2010, a sharp bend (bend 2 in the image) forms when an ox-bow lake reconnects with a downstream portion of the river. By 2018, the bend has moved about 1.5 miles downstream, with counter-point deposits along the shoreline marking its path.

Geomorphologists and engineers knew for some time that long-term change along a river can be described in terms of local and upstream values of curvature (places where the river seems to wrap around a small circle have high curvatures). In the study, the researchers used a formula that uses these curvature values to determine the likelihood of a counter-point bar forming at a particular location.

Sylvester said that he was surprised at how well this formula - and the simplified models used in part to derive it - worked to explain what was thought to be a complex phenomenon.

"Natural rivers, they are actually not that far from what these really simple models predict," Sylvester said.

This is not the first time that Sylvester's research has revealed that river behavior can be governed by relatively simple rules. In 2019, he led a study published in Geology that described a direct relationship between bend sharpness and river migration.

Superficially, point bars and counter-point bars look quite similar and frequently blend into one another. But counter-point bars are distinct environments: compared to point bars, they have finer sediments and lower topography, making them more prone to flooding and hosting lakes. These characteristics create unique ecological niches along rivers. But they are also geologically important, with ancient counter-point bar deposits preserved underground influencing the flow of fluids, such as water and oil and gas.

Mathieu Lapôtre, a geoscientist and assistant professor at Stanford University, said that recognizing that counter-point bars can readily form in meandering rivers - and having a formula for predicting where they will form - is a significant advancement.

"Altogether, the results of Sylvester et al. have important implications for a range of scientific and engineering questions," he said.

###

The research was funded by the bureau's Quantitative Clastics Laboratory research consortium

CAPTION

A computer-created graphic of a river meandering and associated sediment deposits. The lighter blue represents the river's current flow. The darker blue represents old areas of flow that have been cut off due to the river's meandering. The striped regions along the flow paths represent sediment deposits in the form of point bars (red) and counter-point bars (blue).

CREDIT

Credit: Sylvester et al.

 

Picking up a book for fun positively affects verbal abilities: Concordia study

Sandra Martin-Chang and Stephanie Kozak find that fiction lovers are especially likely to benefit from reading

CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

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IMAGE: SANDRA MARTIN-CHANG (LEFT) AND STEPHANIE KOZAK: "FEELING COMPELLED TO READ AN ENTIRE SERIES, FEELING CONNECTED TO CHARACTERS AND AUTHORS, THESE ARE ALL GOOD THINGS. " view more 

CREDIT: CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY

Bring on Twilight. Lee Child's Jack Reacher? Yes, please. More of James Patterson's Alex Cross while we're at it. And let's finish off with revisiting the million-plus words of the Harry Potter saga.

SOME RAYMOND CHANDLER OR THE DROOLING ADJECTIVES OF HP LOVECRAFT

No one will confuse the above book series with high literature. But a new study published in the journal Reading and Writing shows that the more people read any kind of fiction -- even mass market stuff sniffily derided as pulp -- the better their language skills are likely to be.

The piece was written by Sandra Martin-Chang, professor of education in the Faculty of Arts and Science, and PhD student Stephanie Kozak. They found that people who enjoyed reading fiction for leisure and who identified as a reader scored higher on language tests, whereas those who read to access specific information scored more poorly on the same tests. Kyle Levesque of Dalhousie University, Navona Calarco of Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, and Raymond Mar of York University also co-authored the paper.

As leisure reading declines as a pastime for younger adults especially, Martin-Chang says emphasizing the fun aspect of it can draw them back to novels while at the same time boost their verbal abilities.

"It's always very positive and heartening to give people permission to delve into the series that they like," Martin-Chang notes. "I liken it to research that says chocolate is good for you: the guilty pleasure of reading fiction is associated with positive cognitive benefits and verbal outcomes."

Habit-forming pastime

Martin-Chang and Kozak used a scale developed by Mar called the Predictors of Leisure Reading (PoLR) to investigate reading behaviour (motivations, obstacles, attitudes and interests). They then examined how well the PoLR predicted the language skills of 200 undergraduate students, with all data gathered at York University.

The researchers note that the age range of the subjects in the study is of key interest. In early adulthood, reading becomes self-directed rather than imposed by others, which makes this a pivotal time for developing one's own reading habits. This population is also rather understudied, with most existing research focusing far more on children.

The researchers administered a series of measures over two separate half-hour sessions. First, the volunteers completed the 48-question PoLR scale measuring various reading factors. They were then given language tests similar to those found in the SAT and a measure of reading habits called the Author Recognition Test. This test asks respondents to select the names of real fiction and non-fiction authors they are familiar with from a long list of real and fake names. Scores on this test correlate with both actual reading behaviour and with verbal abilities: those who scored higher read more and have better verbal abilities than those who scored lower.

After analyzing the data, the researchers concluded that reading enjoyment, positive attitudes and deeply established interests predict better verbal abilities and that they were more strongly associated with exposure to fiction than non-fiction.

The written word: a love story

The many benefits of reading have long been established. Besides having better verbal abilities, lifelong readers are known to be more understanding of others, more empathetic, less prejudiced, to attain higher socioeconomic status and even to live longer, healthier lives than non-readers.

Teachers and parents can nurture a love of reading by letting young people read what they want, without guilt or shame.

"This ingrained interest, wanting to read something over and over again, feeling compelled to read an entire series, feeling connected to characters and authors, these are all good things," Martin-Chang concludes.

##

Return to work and the path to recovery after serious injury in Black men

UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA SCHOOL OF NURSING

Research News

IMAGE: SARA F. JACOBY, MPH, MSN, PHD, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF NURSING view more 

CREDIT: PENN NURSING

PHILADELPHIA (March 16, 20201) - After a traumatic injury, returning to work (RTW) can be a strong indication of healing and rehabilitation and may play a pivotal role in promoting physical and functional recovery. But how does RTW after a traumatic injury affect mental health recovery, particularly in individuals who experience social and economic marginalization?

In a new study from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing (Penn Nursing), researchers investigated the ways that RTW after an injury predict mental health outcomes in Black men living and recovering in Philadelphia. The study found that men who did not RTW after a serious traumatic injury had almost three times the odds of poor mental health when compared to men who did RTW. The study also found that younger age, lack of insurance or public insurance, and experiences of racism within and beyond the workplace were concurrently strong predictors of poor mental health outcomes.

This is the first study to identify the unique contributions of RTW after injury on mental health outcomes in Black men who recover in the context of urban environments where there are stark and persistent racial disparities in labor force opportunity and unemployment. Results of the research appear in the journal Injury. The article "The Relationship Between Work and Mental Health Outcomes in Black Men After Serious Injury," is available online.

"This study identifies the importance of considering RTW, not just as a marker of trauma recovery, but also as an important influence on mental health and recovery after hospitalization," says Sara F. Jacoby, MPH, MSN, PhD, Assistant Professor of Nursing and senior author of the article. "Interventions that support RTW for those who seek job opportunities in ways that attend to post-injury realities, can be situated within or in addition to strategies that enhance engagement with mental health services, especially for patients who meet screening criteria for depression and PTSD."

###

First author of the article is Aimee J. Palumbo of Temple University and past Penn Injury Science Center post-doctoral fellow; co-authors include Therese S. Richmond, PhD, RN, FAAN; Jessica Webster, MS, LPC of Penn Nursing and Christopher Koilor a past Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics SUMR scholar at the University of Pennsylvania. This study was funded by the National Institute of Nursing Research of the National Institutes of Health (grant R01NR013503, Richmond) and the Penn Injury Science Center (Palumbo and Jacoby) with support from the Centers for Disease Control (R49CE002474).

About the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing

The University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing is one of the world's leading schools of nursing. For the fifth year in a row, it is ranked the #1 nursing school in the world by QS University and is consistently ranked highly in the U.S. News & World Report annual list of best graduate schools. Penn Nursing is ranked as one of the top schools of nursing in funding from the National Institutes of Health. Penn Nursing prepares nurse scientists and nurse leaders to meet the health needs of a global society through innovation in research, education, and practice. Follow Penn Nursing on: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & Instagram.

 

Patient wait times reduced thanks to new study by Dartmouth engineers

THAYER SCHOOL OF ENGINEERING AT DARTMOUTH

Research News

 

The first known study to explore optimal outpatient exam scheduling given the flexibility of inpatient exams has resulted in shorter wait times for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) patients at Lahey Hospital & Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. A team of researchers from Dartmouth Engineering and Philips worked to identify sources of delays for MRI procedures at Lahey Hospital in order to optimize scheduling and reduce overall costs for the hospital by 23 percent.

The Dartmouth-led study, "Stochastic programming for outpatient scheduling with flexible inpatient exam accommodation," was sponsored by Philips and recently published by Health Care Management Science in collaboration with Lahey Hospital.

"Excellence in service and positive patient experiences are a primary focus for the hospital. We continuously monitor various aspects of patient experiences and one key indicator is patient wait times," said Christoph Wald, chair of the department of radiology at Lahey Hospital and professor of radiology at Tufts University Medical School. "With a goal of wanting to improve patient wait times, we worked with data science researchers at Philips and Dartmouth to help identify levers for improvement that might be achieved without impeding access."

Prior to working with the researchers, on an average weekday, outpatients at Lahey Hospital waited about 54 minutes from their arrival until the beginning of their exam. Researchers determined that one of the reasons for the routine delays was a complex scheduling system, which must cater to emergency room patients, inpatients, and outpatients; while exams for inpatients are usually flexible and can be delayed if necessary, other appointments cannot.

"Mathematical models and algorithms are crucial to improve the efficiency of healthcare systems, especially in the current crisis we are going through. By analyzing the patient data, we found that delays were prominent because the schedule was not optimal," said first author Yifei Sun, a Dartmouth Engineering PhD candidate. "This research uses optimization and simulation tools to help the MRI centers of Lahey Hospital better plan their schedule to reduce overall cost, which includes patient waiting time."

First, the researchers reviewed data to analyze and identify sources of delays. They then worked on developing a mathematical model to optimize the length of each exam slot and the placement of inpatient exams within the overall schedule. Finally, the researchers developed an algorithm to minimize the wait time and cost associated with exam delays for outpatients, the idle time of equipment, employee overtime, and cancelled inpatient exams.

"This iterative improvement process did result in measurable improvements of patient wait times," said Wald. "The construction and use of a simulation model have been instrumental in educating the Lahey team about the benefits of dissecting workflow components to arrive at an optimized process outcome. We have extended this approach to identify bottlenecks in our interventional radiology workflow and to add additional capacity under the constraints of staffing schedules."

The researchers believe their solutions are broadly applicable, as the issue is common to many mid-sized hospitals throughout the country.

"We also provided suggestions for hospitals that don't have optimization tools or have different priorities, such as patient waiting times or idle machine times," said Sun, who worked on the paper with her advisor Vikrant Vaze, the Stata Family Career Development Associate Professor of Engineering at Dartmouth.

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The other co-authors of the paper are: Usha Nandini Raghavan and Christopher S. Hall, both from Philips, and Patricia Doyle and Stacey Sullivan Richard of Lahey Hospital.