Mortality decline

COVID-19 mortality rates declined over the first 6 months of the pandemic, according to a JAMA Internal Medicine study. Using data from a large U.S. health insurer, researchers studied some 28,000 adults admitted with COVID-19 across 400 hospitals from January through June 2020. The mean rate of inpatient mortality or hospice referral within 30 days decreased from 17% to 9% over the study period. All but one hospital saw a decline. Even so, wide differences persisted across the hospitals: In May and June, the mortality/hospice referral rate was 7% in the best-performing hospitals versus 12% in the worst-performing.

JAMA Internal Medicine article on mortality rates