Lisa Patel, MD, MESc and Katie E. Lichter, MD, MPH
Health care generates a lot of waste that enters landfills, oceans, and incinerators and adversely affects communities close to waste processing and disposal areas.
Dumping domestic and international health care waste into the earth’s terra firma and oceans undermine global health equity and the health of vulnerable communities.
Historical perspective on how some sites and means of professional caregiving became high or low status helps us understand trends in poor care continuity in US health care.
This article considers 1990s and 2000s-era civil rights complaints in NYC and offers legal strategies for scaling health outcomes improvement nationwide.