Dr. Williams ' Behavior Influenced The Outcome Of Children 's Care

The main purpose of this article was to unexamined biases, to see how much they contribute as well as to address ethnic and racial in health care disparities. Biases can be referred to as favoritism, a favor of one and against another, very systematic and differing by racial and ethnic groups. Many psychologist has turned their focus and studies on common biases, which biases influence medical decisions and interaction.

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).

Neil Calman’s “Out of the Shadows”. In Calman’s essay, he confesses how his implicit bias towards minority groups, in this case black men, prevented him and other medical professionals from properly doing their jobs. Additionally, in Dr. Calman’s essay he blatantly admits that his African American patient, Mr. North, is treated differently than a White middle class patient. Calman supported his claim by citing examples of Mr. North being denied a refill for an insulin prescription, being sent home from an appointment because he was 10 minutes late and even not being offered consultations by doctors to see heart specialists because they assumed he could not afford the visit (Calman, 2000). Dr. Calman recognized his own prejudice and the prejudice of other medical professions toward Mr. North and worked vigorously to try to convince others to confront their own. Even going as far as calling ahead and giving a positive characterization of Mr. North so he would not be categorized as “Poor Black Man” and given subpar medical

When attempting to understand health care disparity, one must first also understand race. As race applies to health care inequity, Williams and Sternthal (2010) suggested that race is not purely biological but also a social classification system created by the hegemonic class. As such, favorable traits are those attributable to whites, thus creating an atmosphere predisposed to prejudices. In a health care setting where providers rely on swift judgment and scientific data to arrive at decisions, culturally ingrained norms are bound to influence attitudes

When considering the American medical system, it is clear that the policy solutions for disparities occurring outside the clinical encounter

My sophomore scholar's research project thoroughly investigated the history of medical abuses against African-Americans. I researched racism in medicine dating back to slavery through the 1990’s, and I found astounding medical injustices against the African-American community. My

Racial classification has a possibility to expose an individual to racism and health disparities by influencing access to care, scope and quality of care, and overall health outcomes. In the United States of America, the secret codes of socioeconomic status are deeply spotted by race, causing the racial differences in socioeconomic status and becomes the main element to racial differences in health and health care (Kennedy, 2013). Many studies have indicated that African-Americans distrust medical practices and medical professionals due to a long history tied to the unethical treatment

Although this is a major contributing factor to healthcare disparities, it may also be the most easily correctable! In many cases, something as simple as educating the providers about the healthcare needs of their underserved patients and eliminating misguided and unfounded stereotypes and preconceptions can dramatically reduce the disparities arising from this factor. In this respect, I feel fortunate in the sense that I have had the opportunity to attend a medical school that realizes the importance of this issue and has taken every possible opportunity to educate and train myself and my fellow colleagues about the implications of these disparities in healthcare. As such, I feel confident that, thanks to my knowledge and awareness of the problem, I can prevent this factor from causing disparities in care within my own practice.

Racial segregated healthcare is not new in America it can be traced back to beginning of slavery. “The emergence of theories such as polygenism, and movement such as anthropometry, phrenology, and craniometry in the early 1800’s as early as the Jim Crow laws enacted between 1876 and 1965 only helped to reinforce these disparities.” (Source 3) Also between 1876 and 1965 laws are created equal facilities for minority’s black and white creating it prohibited for minority physicians to follow or receive education in white facilities. (Source 3) In 2011 reports on healthcare quality and disparities, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) finds that low-income individuals and people of color experience more barriers to care and receive poor quality care. (Source

One of the points raised in IOM’s article to prove that racism is a prevalent cause of health care disparity is the way the health care system is set-up, meaning at times, some hospitals and clinics can adopt a policy to contain health care cost, but may pose hindrances to minority patients’ capability to access the care.

The underlying issues in both cases are racial discrimination. For Cheryl Boulden in the affirmative action case the issue is being “an African American woman among the good ol’ boys in Indiana.” She was recruited because of race and her permanent handicap was seen as an asset for a diversity program lacking any. Yet these qualities made her a target of racism. Susan Finn’s ethnic discrimination presents a dilemma of how to deal with a contract physician’s abusive behavior “toward Hispanics and female staff as well as patients” (Reeves, 2006, p. 79). While the issues of racial and gender discrimination is not unusual, the failure of these agencies to address multiple complaints is.

While today’s “patients [have] one thing going for them that Henrietta didn't: They [are] alive. And the dead have no right to privacy-even if part of them is still alive,” (Skloot 211) history’s ethical debate regarding medical racism remains a social issue. When patients experience racism, they may be unable to defend themselves if they are incapacitated by medical professionals. Due to patient negligence and bias, the health care provider’s poor treatment breaks the trust of minorities. As shown in the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and treatment of Henrietta Lacks, doctors and researchers have failed to inform the participants correctly. Both occurrences highlight medical racism because of the historical maltreatment of minority groups. Now, many

ii. Unconscious physician bias. Another theme in the reading that related back to class was the unconscious biases of doctors influence their interactions with patients, with consequences for patient outcomes. These unconscious biases affect interaction through the doctor’s communication. Establishing a basic understanding of treatment and diagnosis can foster better patient outcomes. An example of unconscious physician bias was Abraham 's focus on former secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Sullivan, in chapter eight. Dr. Sullivan’s campaign focused on the individual choice in adopting healthy lifestyle choices from diet to exercise. Skipping over racial disparities, the unconscious bias inferred through his words was that he considered the patient to blame whenever they fell ill.

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.

However, as time went on, several problems arose which had to do with the principle of justice in healthcare. In America, it is the accepted norm that it is unjust to treat one person better or worse than another person, in similar circumstances (Tong, 2007, p.29). In an attempt