Study: Blacks receive inferior health care to Whites

[Jaron]

(CNN) -- John Reid, a retired businessman, came home from a Caribbean cruise a few years ago with an infected toe as a souvenir. As a diabetic, he knew it was serious, so he went to the emergency room near his home in New York City. There, he says, the first doctor he saw ordered an immediate amputation, scheduling him for surgery right then and there.
John Reid, shown with his regular doctor Neil Calman, says race played a role during an ER visit.

John Reid, shown with his regular doctor Neil Calman, says race played a role during an ER visit.

Horrified, he argued with the doctor, insisting there had to be a way to avoid lopping off his toe. "You'd better bring the head doctor in here," he said.

Reid says the more senior doctor prescribed a long-term regimen of intravenous antibiotics and physical therapy -- a treatment much more expensive and time-consuming than an amputation -- and saved his toe.

Reid, who is African-American, firmly believes that if he'd been a white man, the junior doctor wouldn't have been so quick to order the cheaper and more drastic solution over his objections.

"I think it was very disrespectful. As a matter of fact, I think she was looking down on me," he said. "She just decided that, this guy was a minority [and] we're going to do whatever we feel like doing without consulting you."

Reid says he thinks the young doctor assumed he wasn't smart enough to think through a medical decision. "She just felt like minorities are all the same -- they don't know anything, they're not intelligent, they're not educated," says Reid, a retired real estate agent who once ran his own business with nearly two dozen employees. "If she had known my background, I don't think she would have treated me that way."

CNN contacted the hospital but Montefiore Medical Center refused to discuss his case.

While it's extremely difficult to tell in any given situation how much race -- consciously or subconsciously -- plays a role in a doctor's decision making, multiple studies over several decades have found doctors make different decisions for black patients and white patients even when they have the same medical problems and the same insurance.

"It's absolutely proven through studies that a black man and a white man going to the hospital with the same complaint will be treated differently," Dr. Neil Calman, a family physician and president of the Institute for Family Health in New York, said. Calman is also Reid's regular physician.

For example, a 2005 study found African-American cardiac patients were less likely than whites to receive a lifesaving procedure called revascularization, where doctors restore the flow of oxygen to the heart. The study authors at RTI International, a research institute, noted that all of the patients had Medicare, which covers the cost of revascularization.

In a study conducted in 2007, Harvard researchers showed doctors a vignette about a 50-year-old man with chest pain who arrived at the emergency room, where an EKG showed he'd had a heart attack. Sometimes the researchers paired the medical history with a photo of black man and other times with a photo of a white man.

The doctors were significantly more likely to recommend lifesaving drugs when they thought the patient was white than when they thought the patient was black.

Is it racism or something else?

"Racism in health care is a common experience of people of color," Calman recently wrote on his blog.

But he said disparities in medical care are about much more than race. "[Race] is one very important factor in why people get bad medical care," he wrote. "So is poor education, poverty and lack of insurance."

Dr. Cornelius Flowers, a cardiologist at the Emory University School of Medicine, in Atlanta, Georgia, agrees there are several reasons for racial disparities in medicine.

"It's about respect. If a patient is of a low socioeconomic status, a doctor might think, why do I need to go out of my way for this guy? I'll just do the minimum I have to do and send him on his way," Flowers says.

He adds that sometimes African-American patients don't insist on quality care.

"Back in the 1950s and 60s, hospitals in places like Atlanta had a black side and a white side, and the care for blacks was second rate," he says. "People who remember those days still consider themselves second-class citizens, and a lot of times they allow people to treat them that way."

Flowers said times are changing; younger minority patients are more likely to insist on good care, he says.

"Younger people demand better. Younger people demand more," he says.

Studies also show that doctors can be biased against patients because of their body size.
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A study out this week from researchers at the New York University School of Medicine found more than 40 percent of the doctors surveyed had a negative reaction to obese people.

"The lesson learned is, I tell people all the time to seek a doctor who will care about you," Flowers says. "If you feel like you have a doctor who isn't genuinely concerned about you, just get another doctor next time."

Very disturbing article, and one that permeates America from the upper crust to the very foundation of the country. I think it is unfortunate and, with something as serious as health care it is a problem that needs to be addressed. However, given that any given response to a health problem is not necessarily set in stone but a matter of opinion or expertise, I have no clue how we could go about addressing this.

[garbon]

How is this news? Two studies from years past and a man who claims racism was involved.

I'd rather take the point that Dr. Cornelius Flowers mentioned which aren't because doctors are racially prejudiced.

[Jaron]

So, instead of it being black/white you'd rather it be a case of rich/poor?

[MadImmortalMan]

The only color the doctors are biased in favor of is green.

[derspiess]

Reid, who is African-American, firmly believes that if he'd been a white man, the junior doctor wouldn't have been so quick to order the cheaper and more drastic solution over his objections.

This is the most they have to go on?  Gotta love journos.

CNN contacted the hospital but Montefiore Medical Center refused to discuss his case.

Well, no shit.  Has CNN ever heard of HIPAA?


Stupid article, and another weak troll by the J-man.

[Jaron]

How is this a troll? I link an interesting article posted on CNN and somehow I'm the bad guy?

[garbon]

How is this a troll? I link an interesting article posted on CNN and somehow I'm the bad guy?

Nothing interesting about a one man rant.

[Admiral Yi]

The 2005 RTI study is the interesting part.

[PDH]

Quiet Yi, they were ignoring that.

[Josquius]

I'd agree its not really news...A bigger percentage of black folks are poor. It figures.

The Harvard thing sounds bad though, I wonder on the details.

[Strix]

It's a good ploy by the Obama Administration. They throw the race card down very subtly through the media and other sources to plant the idea in the back of people's minds. So when it comes time to make a push for a health care bill than the whole "race" issue becomes the 300 lbs gorilla the Republicans cannot ignore or avoid.

It's similar to when Obama claimed that the Republicans and their conservative base were referring to him as "that other guy" implying racial overtones. That the Democrats and Obama were the ones who created the idea of him being "that other guy" became irrelevant by that point.

[Queequeg]

It's a good ploy by the Obama Administration. They throw the race card down very subtly through the media and other sources to plant the idea in the back of people's minds. So when it comes time to make a push for a health care bill than the whole "race" issue becomes the 300 lbs gorilla the Republicans cannot ignore or avoid.

It's similar to when Obama claimed that the Republicans and their conservative base were referring to him as "that other guy" implying racial overtones. That the Democrats and Obama were the ones who created the idea of him being "that other guy" became irrelevant by that point.

You can start bitching about people playing the race card when there isn't a card to play.

Why is it that Republicans are always the first to shout "racism" or "race card" when some statistic about the welfare of minorities in this country is produced, but are always the last to care about actual civil rights or racial inequality in this country?  Are white people so put upon?

[Admiral Yi]

You can start bitching about people playing the race card when there isn't a card to play.

Why is it that Republicans are always the first to shout "racism" or "race card" when some statistic about the welfare of minorities in this country is produced, but are always the last to care about actual civil rights or racial inequality in this country?  Are white people so put upon?

I assume when you say civil rights and racial inequality you mean civil rights and racial inequality for blacks and other protected minorities.

[Eddie Teach]

Quiet Yi, they were ignoring that.

Like the writer of the article, who apparently thought Mr. Reid's anecdote of far greater importance.

[Strix]

You can start bitching about people playing the race card when there isn't a card to play.

Why is it that Republicans are always the first to shout "racism" or "race card" when some statistic about the welfare of minorities in this country is produced, but are always the last to care about actual civil rights or racial inequality in this country?  Are white people so put upon?

I read the article. If the creator of the article didn't craft it to be about "racism" than there wouldn't be a "race card" to play. It's an article specifically tailored to begin linking health care with racism.

Let's look at the article a little closer. A man who comes from a culture that has a tremendous on going issue with diabetes goes to a NYC emergency room instead of seeing his regular doctor. It's a NYC emergency room so it is most likely very crowded and busy. Was the doctor new? A lot of interns and other doctors just starting out are usually the ones seen in emergency rooms? Was the doctor from the United States? A portion of doctors in the US come from other countries and bring their own bias from them. Did the doctor give the patient a hard time about trying to keep the toe or was a more senior doctor brought in to discuss the situation? The article makes it seem like the doctor had her saw out and was ready to amputate when a horrified patient argued and insisted he get a second opinion. It is always an option in the US to get a second opinion on a procedure. Does the article have proof that blacks are denied this option which would be a clear case of racism? Did the hospital try to talk him out of saving his toe?

There are a lot of unanswered questions that probably would end this as an article about racism and raise questions about crowded emergency rooms and overworked young doctors.

The RTI study may or may not be flawed. We don't know because a link is not provided. Were all the patients in the study from the same hospital? From the same area? From the same state? These are important questions that we don't have answers to at this time.

What I find very interesting is that the author points out at the end of the article that people who are overweight are discriminated against by doctors.  A lot of African-Americans suffer from weight issues as they age because of cultural differences in eating habits which leads to diabetes, high blood pressure, hyper tension, and heart problems. This begs the question that perhaps "racism" isn't the problem but rather bad eating habits, poor education, and low economic status.