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| Katherine Ullmer kullmer, Experts ponder racial health gap Meeting participants discuss disparities in care for blacks , 2/27/05 Dayton Daily News B3 (February 27, 2005) | |
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| Katherine Ullmer kullmer,Experts ponder racial
health gap Meeting participants discuss disparities in care for
blacks , 2/27/05 Dayton Daily News B3 (February 27, 2005) DAYTON -- While a significant number of Americans believe blacks get the same quality health care as whites, according to health polls done in 2000 and 2001, perceptions don't always reflect reality. Stereotypes, bias, and prejudice, as well as cultural insensitivity, often unintentional, have led to a lower quality of health services for racial and ethnic minorities, William Tindall, a Wright State University professor of family medicine, said Saturday. Tindall cited a 2003 report by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Unequal Treatment Confronting Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare, a study commissioned by the U.S. Congress. Blacks are less likely to receive appropriate cardiac medication, to undergo coronary artery bypass surgery, or to receive peritoneal dialysis and kidney transplantation, and "are likely to receive a lower quality of basic clinical services, such as intensive care," according to the 2003 report. Tindall was among 26 participants in Saturday's quarterly meeting of Durban to Dayton: Community Summit on Eliminating Racism, held at the University of Dayton's Keller Hall. The group, whose goal is to eliminate institutional racism from all aspects of life, discussed race and health care disparities. Grace Curtis, of the Kettering Medical Center Network, one of the area's largest health care employers with 6,000 employees, said the Kettering network has become more aware of cultural differences "due in large part to our involvement in this group." She said the network has begun an education and awareness campaign directed at individual health providers and is working on programs speaking to minority issues. Among other thing, nurses must take mass communication classes on diversity. Vernellia Randall, a UD law professor and registered nurse who co-coordinates the Community Summit, said her research several years ago, which she said was recently substantiated in a report in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that "100,000 blacks die each year in the United States that would not have died if they were white," due to disparities in health care service. The 2003 report's 21 recommendations include increasing the number of racial and ethnic minorities among health professionals. |
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