Nine Lessons Learned From the COVID-19 Pandemic for Improving Hospital Care and Health Care Delivery

New York City (NYC) was the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US in March 2020. A dense city of only 302 square miles, it has had 33 359 deaths and 109 192 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 as of June 15, 2021. In guiding NYC Health + Hospitals, the largest municipal hospital system in the US, through the pandemic, we have learned a number of lessons. Although there is much to debate about the national public health response to COVID-19, we focus on the lessons learned through COVID-19 that we believe have applicability for improving hospital care in the future. The growth of telehealth has been covered elsewhere. We present 9 other lessons for improving hospital care and health care delivery.