Doctors Treat Blacks and Whites Differently

There’s a new article on CNN that talks about doctors (consciously or not) treating black patients different than white patients. The story begins with the story of a diabetic black man who immediately went in because he had an infection on his toe. As any diabetic knows, it’s imperative to take care of your feet because problems can grow very quickly.

When he went in to the emergency room, however, the first doctor that saw him wanted to amputate. Since this was obviously in an early stage of disease, it was a very drastic measure. The man insisted on talking to someone else, who prescribed a more costly and lengthy method that did, in fact, save his toe. His thought was that the first doctor who saw him treated him with such disregard because he was black.

The funny part is, as I was reading, I was thinking she was treating him dismissively because he had diabetes. I always feel like I get that dismissive and arrogant treatment for doctors who look at you like you brought your diabetes on yourself.

Regardless of which (if either) situation was the case with this doctor, it does bring up a point about physicians who let their own bias get in the way of care. This man had to insist to see someone else, and in doing so saved his foot. But I wonder how many of us would have done the same thing. For example, I probably would have been disgusted by the doctor treating me poorly but I wonder if I would have spoke up about it?

The moral of this story is that if you feel any medical personnel is not giving you the proper care, you’ve got to speak up for yourself. Don’t tolerate it. Don’t let personal bias or racism or arrogance prevent you from receiving quality care.

Image: sxc.hu.