From neonatal and primary care to emergency medicine, kids got lower-quality care than their white peers, researchers found. Disparities include longer waits and less pain medication after surgery.
From neonatal and primary care to emergency medicine, kids got lower-quality care than their white peers, researchers found. Disparities include longer waits and less pain medication after surgery.
There have been studies that indicate that people who are not exposed to varieties of people constantly tend to not recognize faces and/or facial expressions on other races.
There are also studies that indicate that white patients are more likely to be prescribed painkillers when they’re in pain, whereas black patients are more likely to be thought of as exaggerating.
I’ve had instances where I, as a white person, got immediate access to great medications. My black coworker, same illness around the same time, was told to take Sudafed and other OTCs.
The numbers also don’t lie. Maternity mortality is higher for non-white patients. Surgical outcomes tend to be poorer. Follow care tends to be less stringent. It’s across the board.
On one hand, there are some systemic things that can explain this. Drug interactions are kind of presumed to be identical for all races when you control for race, but that may not be the case - we may just be averaging out to a measure that is no longer useful. So biological differences, ability of the doctor to identify pain/issues, willingness to believe the patient, and all sorts of other things play in just as much if not more than overt racism.