Week 3: A Deeper Dive into Hospital Preparedness

Yash D -

Hello!

This week is mainly going to be revising the literature review.

Last week, I accidently forgot to specify that I was finalizing my rough draft of my literature review for review, so I apologize for that.

I had a meeting with my site advisor and one of the things she mentioned during the meeting was why is this issue of hospital preparedness unique to Arizona?  I didn’t have an answer to that question at that moment as I had been focusing on the global and country wide aspect of my topic. She talked about how there isn’t just “Arizonans” in Arizona. There are also 22 tribes, immigrants, migrants from the US-Mexico border, and many more people that live within this state. She talked about how the majority of Arizona is urban, but these tribes usually are located in rural areas and have many health disparities like hospitals in the reservations could have, for example, less than 5 medical beds, while hospitals in urban areas could have like 50 medical beds. Hospital preparedness differs across the state due to these reasons. She also mentioned the importance of considering the aspect of population movement. Population movement refers to people constantly moving around whether within a state, across the country, etc. Hospitals in Arizona have to consider this since germs and viruses spread through population movement. My meeting with my site mentor has really broadened my view of my topic and I thank my site mentor a lot for showing me a different side of hospital preparedness.

Otherwise, that is all I am doing this week. Stay tuned for updates!

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Comments:

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    Angelina D.
    Hi Yash, This is a really interesting perspective! How do you plan to incorporate these unique factors into your literature review? Looking forward to your updates!
    February 28, 2025 at 4:57 pm - Reply
    Nayla A
    Hi! How do you think these factors, like rural versus urban hospital differences and population movement, will shape your research moving forward? Excited to see how your project develops!
    March 1, 2025 at 4:26 pm - Reply
    Nachiket Gohad
    Hi Yash, how do hospital preparedness plans differ for urban vs. rural areas in Arizona? Are there any specific strategies or frameworks that hospitals in rural areas use to overcome the challenges of limited resources, or do they not even have a strategy at all?
    March 1, 2025 at 9:35 pm - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Angelina! In my literature review, I was planning to incorporate these factors by writing about the importance of them to my overall topic. For example, one of my paragraphs starts off with asking a question which is, "Why Arizona? Why is the issue of hospital preparedness unique to the state of Arizona?". I later discuss about such factors, provide evidence from scholarly sources, and conclude the paragraph. This paragraph is, in my opinion, the most important part of the literature review since it provides the overall context, importance, and uniqueness of this issue in Arizona.
    March 2, 2025 at 10:27 am - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Nayla! These factors will shape my research moving forward by providing a clear direction and deeper understanding of my topic of hospital preparedness specifically in Arizona. These factors, as stated earlier, will help explain the uniqueness and importance of my topic for the state of Arizona. I am soon going to receive declassified data from a recent survey that was taken in Arizona regarding my topic which will hopefully include such factors.
    March 2, 2025 at 10:43 am - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Nachiket! For such preparedness plans, they do in fact differ from one another. Recently, I had found out that for rural areas, there is a Rural Communities and Emergency Preparedness Plan that was created by the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy which is continuing to be updated as the site says. This plan takes into consideration of the various unique factors of rural areas such as resource limitations, remoteness and geography, etc. I also read a document by Local Majority addressing the urban and rural divide in Arizona for healthcare. Rural areas as well as tribal reservations receive funding and supplies from the state government. Urban areas would most likely use the plans created by the Arizona Department of Health Services and similar organizations. In short, both urban and rural areas have their own emergency plans, but the divide between them remains till this day.
    March 2, 2025 at 10:59 am - Reply
    Yogya R.
    Hi, are there specific strategies you think could help bridge the gap in healthcare access for underserved populations in Arizona?
    March 2, 2025 at 11:41 am - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Yogya! There are many strategies that could help bridge the gap in healthcare access for underserved populations in Arizona. One such strategy is the expansion of healthcare services in rural areas. What I mean by this is not just giving money for these services, but providing key supplies, infrastructure, staff, training, etc. This will help a lot of rural areas during times of crises such as pandemics and try to provide more quality care towards people in the area. Another strategy could be that we could try to connect rural areas to places where they can receive good medical care. One of the major problems for rural areas is the lack of public transportation and poor road conditions. If we can fix that issue, rural areas will have a far easier time accessing healthcare in Arizona. These are just a few of the many strategies for bridging the gap in healthcare access in Arizona.
    March 2, 2025 at 1:17 pm - Reply
    Udbhav Sreeram
    Hi Yash! With limited resources, how did the hospitals in rural areas provide necessary care during COVID? Did the population movement increase the number of patients?
    March 2, 2025 at 4:21 pm - Reply
    Shreenidhi B.
    Hi! What is an example of a population movement that recently occurred in Arizona and what were the effects of it?
    March 2, 2025 at 7:10 pm - Reply
    Leah Kim
    Hi Yash! Now that you have noticed the specific challenges of preparedness that the hospitals in Arizona are facing, do you think other states may face similar issues, or is this a unique case that only applies for Arizona?
    March 2, 2025 at 7:46 pm - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Udbhav! Hospitals in rural areas were one of the major places where COVID-19 had its greatest impact on so rural hospitals struggled a lot to provide care and contain the spread of the infection. According to articles I have read recently, rural areas had to ration their resources carefully just like the other hospitals throughout the pandemic and in the worst-case scenario, they couldn't provide any care due to lack of resources. For population movement, it depends on what year of the pandemic you are talking about. In the early years of the pandemic, there were lockdowns, so there was very minimum population movement as travel and the border was shut down. In the later years, when people started to resist lockdowns and they were allowed to move around to places, it did increase the number of patients at the beginning.
    March 3, 2025 at 9:47 am - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Shreenidhi! One population movement that continues to be occurring is the migrants crossing the US-Mexico border. One of the effects of this is hospitals have to be prepared to take in more patients than usual and have the necessary supplies and medical beds.
    March 3, 2025 at 9:51 am - Reply
    yash_d
    Hi, Leah! I do believe that other states near Arizona are facing similar issues. The general population movement is an issue that every state faces. From what I researched, Texas faces many of the similar issues that Arizona does such as the urban-rural divide, migrants crossing the border, rising costs, etc. However, there is a clear difference in the issues we face in Arizona and the issues in the East Coast, for example.
    March 3, 2025 at 9:57 am - Reply

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