Black American Distrust

The relationship between black patients and doctors has always been strained by the injustice done by doctors in history. One such example stated in the book is the Tuskegee syphilis studies: They recruited hundreds of African-American men with syphilis, then watched them die slow, painful, preventable deaths, even after they realized penicillin could cure them. …

Barriers in health care can lead to disparities in meeting health needs and receiving appropriate care, including preventive services and the prevention of unnecessary hospitalizations (HealthyPeople.gov, 2012). In their 2008 annual report, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality lists several disparities’ in health care. They report that racial and ethnic minorities in the United States

In doing so, he pays particularly close attention to black patients and their relations with health care policies and practices. Smedly maintains that blacks are not only the victims of, inpatient and outpatient treatment, racial policies, and other services but also the victims of its consequences. He argues that many health care administrators are agents to a system of inequality that support provider and administrator biases, geographical inequalities, and racial stereotypes (Smedly 2012).

In 1964 Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in which Title VI specifically forbade the distribution of federal funds to organizations that practiced discrimination. Enforcement of Title VI was a major priority within the Johnson administration as they implemented the Medicare program (Reynolds, 1997). Despite a mandate of equal treatment, significant patterns of segregated health care utilization have remained to the present. In an analysis of Medicare beneficiaries, Bach and colleagues found that their was a small proportion of physicians – 22% - who provided the majority of visits - 80% - by black patients (Bach, Pham, Schrag, Tate, & Hargraves, 2004). This may represent a pattern of racial concordance, patients choosing providers of their own race, but the physicians seeing the majority of black patients did not the same resources available as those seeing the majority of white patients. Compared with physicians seeing the mostly white patients, physicians seeing mostly black patients were 33% less likely to report always having access to high quality specialists, and 40% less likely to report always having access to high quality diagnostic imaging. In short, black patients are using a different health system than white patients on average and the health system black patients are using has fewer resources (Bach, et al., 2004).

This case study is based on the Metrolina Health Center, which was started by Dr. Charles Warren. Williams and several medical colleagues with a $25,000 grant typically from the Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Williams is the first African American to have services on this category of staff; Charlotte’s Memorial Hospital, which is undoubtedly the Charlotte’s largest hospital. The main concern of Dr. Williams is the health care needs of poor people in the area. He had always focused on making the word a better place, especially for the people who feel less fortunate. The doctor also went ahead with enlisting the aid of a local dentist, Dr. John murphy among other professionals including the director of the Sickle

With this increased research and effort, Americans would be able to intervene and make positive impacts with the state, tribal, and local levels to best address health disparities and inequalities. In efforts to thwart ethnic and minority disparities, The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) passed the HHS Disparities Action Plan in order to establish “a nation free of disparities in health and health care, (Cooper 97)” and to implement a series of priorities, strategies, actions, and goals to achieve this vision. States, local communities, private organizations, and providers have additionally engaged in efforts to reduce health disparities. With the HHS Disparities Action Plan, the Department continuously assess policies and programs on racial and ethnic health disparities, watching to see which policies make an impact on the level of health care received by minorities. Similarly, The Affordable Care Act (ACA) health coverage expansions significantly increase coverage options for low and moderate income populations and particularly benefit the “vulnerable populations.” The ACA also includes provisions to strengthen the safety-net delivery system, improve

A notable discrepancy exists between health care received by the black population in comparison to the white population. However, the foundation of health care inconsistencies has yet to be firmly established. Instead, conflicting views prioritize causes of health care disparities as due to social determinants or due to individual responsibility for health (Woolf & Braveman, 2011). Emerging literature also indicates that health care providers propagate disparities by employing implicit biases (Chapman, Kaatz, & Carnes, 2013; Dovidio, Fiske, 2012). This paper aims to discuss black health care disparities as a function of socially constructed beliefs that both consciously and unconsciously influence health care professionals practice.

Providers possess a multiplicity of roles in today’s society. It is typical that patients trust their physicians and should feel comfortable seeing them; however, not all communities can feel this way about their providers. Iatrophobia is prominent within the African-American community, and a history of medical abuses against this community may have a link to such present-day health inequalities as shorter life spans and higher infant mortality rates than Whites.

Despite improvements, differences persist in health care quality among racial and ethnic minority groups. People in low-income families also experience poorer quality care (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). Access to care measures include facilitators and barriers to care and health care utilization experiences of subgroups defined by race and ethnicity, income, education, availability of health insurance, limited English proficiency, and availability of a usual source of care (Mandal, 2014).

The disparities are around us every day and unless we educate ourselves and our communities these disparities will continue to wreak havoc on our neighborhoods and in the future, we will just be putting our kids and their kids in a continuing cycle of ignorance when we could have done more if it’s just educating the community we leave in, that alone could be enough to turn the tides in our people favor. In turn, I would hope this paper enlighten you on what is going on in our neighborhood and what we can do to correct this issue to preserve our autonomy. Racial and ethnic health disparities undermine what a healthcare system should stand for. Although the top three causes and seven of the 10 leading causes of death are the same for African Americans and whites, the risk factors and incidence, morbidity, and mortality rates for these diseases and injuries often are greater among blacks than whites (MMWR, 2005). Health disparities refer to differences in disease risks, incidence, morbidity, and mortality but most of all for the sake of this paper unequal access to quality health insurance amongst African American in the United States, which will also go hand and hand with the social and economic disadvantages. The disadvantages of health disparities usually affect people of African American descent who have systemically experienced a greater social and economic obstacle to health care.

Today, one of the leading problems discussed in politics is healthcare. America constantly struggles with their healthcare system to make it affordable and accessible to communities. In the twentieth century this same problem also existed, creating one of the most well-known African American activist groups in America. In the book Body and Soul by Alondra Nelson, it discusses the social inequalities of the healthcare system in America and how the Black Panther Party fought against medical discrimination for African Americans. Nelson talks about how the Black Panther Party went from the role of protecting black citizens to a larger political role in African American health care. The significance of this book applies to medical sociology in many ways and is essential to the understanding of providing better healthcare to future generations. In the following book review, it includes a summary of each chapter to highlight the main points, some of the very many medical sociology concepts that could be applied, and lastly an evaluation of the book as a whole and its significance to our course.

The purpose of this paper is to exemplify the healthcare crisis of African Americans within the broader context of American healthcare reform. In order for one to appreciate the depth of necessity for healthcare reform in the African American community, he or she must have a general understanding of the history of healthcare for African Americans. As stated by the institute of medicine in a study assessing the health and mental health disparities of African Americans, “The sources of these disparities are complex, are rooted in historic and contemporary inequities, and involve many participants at several levels, including health systems, their administrative and bureaucratic processes, utilization managers, healthcare professionals, and

Personal and institutional relationships may be affected by concerns of continued discrimination against African Americans who have historically been victims of both interpersonal and institutional racial discrimination (LaVeist & Nuru-Jeter, 2002). Research demonstrated that concordance in patient and physician race is positively related to African Americans perceptions of quality of care. Patient satisfaction supports the notion that fear of race-based discrimination in interpersonal relationships with health care providers may also affect trust (Cooper, Gallo, Gonzales, Vu, Powe, Nelson & Ford, 1999; LaVeist, 2002). African Americans had been shown to have greater awareness of the documented history of racial discrimination in the health care system than white Americans.

One way to see change within our health care system would be to eliminate disparities that will then lead to less racial discrimination. Physicians and health professionals in our health care system should be more cultural competent. We live in a widely diverse country; there should be no reason why we all cannot have the same access to health care. Despite our race, culture, income or education level, we are all humans and we all require the same medical attention. We all look different physically but are the exact same internally. Though the color of our skin can vary from one another we all carry the same organs, we all have beating hearts and blood flowing through our veins. A change must be made within our society and our health care system in order for all to be treated equally. The first step to this change would be to acknowledge that discrimination within our health care system exits and that it is unfair and unacceptable for any individual to experience poor health access or outcomes because of who they are, what color skin they have or where they come from. Cultural barriers may exist indefinitely but should not be held accountable for ones health. The second step for change is educating our physicians and health professionals to be diverse and learn about

Rebuilding trust through education and communication will promote the participation of minorities and women. Rebuilding trust amongst these groups is due to the history of unethical medical research. History dating back to slavery shows that slaves were used in unethical research. In addition, minority and women may not be given the right to decide if they want to participate. We have instances of proper treatment being withheld from African Americans, other minorities, and women. Education of research in diverse communities would reduce the stigma that some minorities may still hold onto from research where people were treated inhumanely such as the 1939 to 1972 Tuskegee Syphilis Study Shavers‐Hornaday, V. L., et al., (1997). Clinicians and researchers would be able to increase clinical trial enrollment with materials that are culturally appropriate and understandable. Education of clinical trials research in the communities where research is minimally available, can improve the patient-clinician