Report Shows How to Reach Health Care Equity, Why It Matters
Feb. 2, 2022 — Dejuan Patterson was returning home from work one night when he was robbed at gunpoint and shot in the head. Seventeen years old, he was left to die.
Although doctors saved his life, the Baltimore native, who’s now 33, questions the treatment he received from the hospital.
He had surgery and was discharged, he says, with no idea what to do next.
“I did not receive any rehabilitation plans, doctor referrals, specialist services referrals,” Patterson says. “Considering that I had a brain injury, I am just now, years later, getting the quality of care that I was supposed to have.”
Since then, he has figured out for himself that he should have received referrals to a neurologist, been given a treatment plan, and been tested for cognitive and emotional function.
In 2020 Valerie Vison’s husband Jordan, who was Black—Vinson is white—died of an asthma attack when he was just 30 years old.
“He’d had asthma since he was born so he’s always had an inhaler on him. However, Jordan was fit. He was healthy, active, and seemed to be in a stable place of management with his asthma. In the 12 years that we were together he had 3 serious asthma attacks, the third one was fatal.”
According to Vison the aftercare plan Jordan received when he left the hospital was flawed.
“When he took his emergency inhaler it made the asthma attack worse,” she says. “When he went into the ER he told them that, he stated that to the doctors. It’s in the records. And we left the hospital with that same inhaler.”
“The only thing that he got extra was steroids and they gave us a nebulizer machine with a prescription for albuterol which, he was already on.”
Vison believes the color of Jordan’s skin played a role in how he was treated by the health care system.
“I would say there was no health care professional who ever treated Jordan’s asthma as if it were life-threatening,” she says. “He was provided the traditional route for medicine, which is your preventative inhaler and your emergency inhaler. It was routine, and there was never any sense of urgency or real risk to life.”
Shortly after Jordan died in July, the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA) issued a report that found Black, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Natives shoulder the highest burden of asthma in the country.
The report found found Black Americans are nearly 1.5 times more likely to have asthma compared to white Americans and are 5 times more likely to visit the emergency room because of asthma and 3 times more likely to die than whites. Black women have the highest death rate from asthma of any group.
That report says researchers have documented differences in the therapeutic response to albuterol along racial and ethnic lines and some studies show the medication doesn’t work as well in Black and Puerto Rican patients with moderate to severe asthma. One study found they had the lowest responsiveness to the medicine.
New Report Focuses on Equity
The National Health Council is working to change this type of narrative.
Its newly released report, “Access, Affordability and Quality: A Patient-Focused Blueprint for Real Health Equity,” identifies systemic biases and structural disparities in the nation’s health care system and proposed key reforms it hopes will help tear down barriers to quality health care for millions of Americans.
Spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report details the impact of systemic racism in society and what it calls “the harmful disparities affecting people with chronic conditions and disabilities.”
“We were and remain compelled to take action,” the report says.
The health equity initiative, signed by 58 CEOs of national patient groups, identified four priority areas that National Health Council CEO Randall Rutta believes will help eliminate bias and expand access in the health care system.
Those areas are: access to care, health insurance coverage, social determinants of health, and medical innovation.
Rutta believes as a public policy agenda is created, equity will be at the center of it all. He’s hopeful that with about 75 national organizations directly involved in developing long- and short-term priorities and making sure patients are involved in all health care decisions, centuries-old health inequities against people of color can be addressed and the diversity gap closed.
“From our perspective, health is so key and so core, we’re coming out of the COVID pandemic hopefully in a way that absolutely gives us clear examples of how we need to do things differently to reach marginalized populations and speak to and engage them in a way they will feel that they’re seen, they’re heard, and their interests are our interests in helping them achieve their health,” he says. “We cannot continue as a society or as a health care sector with these structural barriers in place.”
Patients are Prime
It’s vital, Rutta says, that patients are seen as not just “numbers on a page or statistics in a report” and that their experiences help bring “meaningful change that supports better, more equitable health for all Americans.”
LaVarne Burton, president and CEO of the American Kidney Fund and the National Health Council board chair, says the patient perspective is the key to addressing health equity.
“For too long, discussions have been made about health care without real input from patients, let alone patients who are marginalized and for marginalized communities,” she says.
An example, Burton says, is kidney disease. It impacts people of all backgrounds and demographics.
“However, people of color disproportionately progress to kidney failure at a much higher rate than others, and this is due to the lack of health insurance, the lack of health care providers, and other inequities in our health care system,” she says. “We need to reimagine our health care system so that it is responsive to patients and drives equity.”
Patterson agrees. His experience with what he believes is an inequitable health care system led him to get an education and become an advocate for others in disenfranchised communities.
“I have seen patients being mistreated due to their ZIP code, race, and class,” he says. “I’ve seen decisions being made for patients and families without them, without their presence or input, and I strongly advocate for patients to make informed decisions.”
His advice to patients who fear they may be marginalized: “You matter, your voice is important, it should be included. Be courageous, ask questions, know that you have the right to challenge and ask questions about your health when dealing with the health care system. You deserve to be treated respectfully. You deserve to speak up for yourself and be heard. Despite the power dynamic, you are the patient, and ultimately health practitioners work for you.”
Attention in Congress
U.S. Rep. Robin Kelly, D-IL, is a leader in health equity efforts on Capitol Hill. She chairs the Congressional Black Caucus’s Health Braintrust, is the vice chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, and serves on its Health Subcommittee.
She, too, wants more focus on improving disparities in health care.
“We all want to keep ourselves and our families healthy, but too often, families experience barriers to care, lack of access to care, or unaffordable care,” she says. “We need to work towards promoting health equity in our communities, increasing diversity within the ranks of health care providers, and expanding innovation at the intersection of technology, telehealth, and telemedicine.”
Passionate about the lack of diversity in clinical trials, Kelly has sponsored legislation to address those issues.
“Decades of institutional racism have hindered health care access and worsened these inequities,” she said. “For centuries, the health of Black and brown Americans has been cast aside as an afterthought. Even when data has shown us pervasive disparities in health care access and in disease and treatment rates, our health care system has not prioritized those issues.”
Gary Puckrein, PhD, president and CEO of the National Minority Quality Forum and a member of the National Health Council board, says creating a health system that works for marginalized populations benefits everyone.
“I am convinced that the patient advocacy community can be the catalyst for change. They’re on the front line, working with patients every day, advocating for them, and now they’re using their unique voices on the issue of inequities in our health care system, and I think they can bring a dramatic change to our health care system.”
Heya this is kinda of off topic but I was wanting to know if blogs use WYSIWYG editors
or if you have to manually code with HTML. I’m starting a blog soon but have
no coding expertise so I wanted to get guidance from
someone with experience. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Howdy! This blog post couldn’t be written any better! Reading through this article reminds me of my previous roommate! He continually kept talking about this. I am going to forward this post to him. Pretty sure he’ll have a good read. Thank you for sharing!
I loved as much as you’ll receive carried out right here.
The sketch is attractive, your authored subject matter stylish.
nonetheless, you command get bought an impatience over that you wish be delivering the following.
unwell unquestionably come more formerly again as
exactly the same nearly a lot often inside case you shield this hike.
Hello very cool website!! Man .. Excellent .. Amazing ..
I will bookmark your blog and take the feeds also? I am satisfied
to find numerous helpful info right here in the put up,
we want work out extra techniques in this regard, thank you for sharing.
. . . . .
We are a group of volunteers and opening a new scheme in our community.
Your web site offered us with valuable information to work on. You have done an impressive job and our whole community will be grateful to
you.
Your typical on thhe net casino in Korea will be suppliied by reside casino giants such as NetEnt or Evolution Gaming.
my blog post: 온라인카지노 순위
Loan agreements arre finalized with the lender,
who pays the funds to you on receipt of the signed contract.
Feel free to surf to my web site :: ezloan.io
Plus, LendYou goes above and beyond to make certain that your private info stays just that – private.
Look into my webpage; 대환대출
For much more facts, please also refer to the Legal Disclaimers offered on the Site.
Take a look at my web site 일수 대출
Nevertheless, that doesn’t imply that South Koreans
canot play Casino Gamble games on line.
We use a range of aspects tto rqnk our top rated casino gambling web pages.
Feel free to surf to my blog post: casino79.in
Other amenities, such as restaurants, bars, lounges and entertainment,
are also included in the all round expertise.
Stop by my webb blog: Casino
Only a quarter of Milllennial ladies count on their partners’ careers to take precedence.
Feel free to surf to myy website – 이지알바
You can also earn oneself an added 25% forr Neosurrf oor BTC deposits also.
My web blog – 바카라 순위
Prior to you get to access thhe live chat, Ignition will redirect you to unique pages to try annd support you out.
My website – Online Casino
This effort, performed in partnership with LeanIn.Org,
tracks the progress of gorls in corplorate America.
Feel free to surf to my website: 마사지알바
The Civil Rights Act outlawed unequal spend based on race, sex, color, national origin and religion.
my site; web page
In reality, Gabrielle also claimed to be applying ChatGPT to automate quite a few tasks
and streamline her search for lazy girl jobs.
my blog 노래방 알바
Hi there friends, good paragraph and good arguments commented
at this place, I am truly enjoying by these.
Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you
relied on the video to make your point. You clearly know what youre talking about, why
waste your intelligence on just posting videos to your
weblog when you could be giving us something enlightening to read?
If some one needs to be updated with most recent technologies after that he must be visit this site
and be up to date all the time.
What a data of un-ambiguity and preserveness of precious know-how about unpredicted feelings.
I have been surfing on-line more than 3 hours nowadays,
but I never found any fascinating article like yours. It
is pretty price sufficient for me. In my view,
if all web owners and bloggers made just right
content material as you did, the net might be a lot
more useful than ever before.
My partner and I stumbled over here from a different web address and thought I might as well check things out.
I like what I see so now i am following you. Look forward to checking out your web page again.
I visited multiple websites except the audio quality for audio songs
existing at this web page is in fact superb.
I am in fact thankful to the owner of this web page who has shared this impressive paragraph at at this time.
What’s up, yes this post is truly nice and I have learned lot of things from it
on the topic of blogging. thanks.
Hey! This is kind of off topic but I need some guidance from an established blog.
Is it very difficult to set up your own blog? I’m not very techincal but I can figure things out pretty quick.
I’m thinking about creating my own but I’m not sure where to begin. Do
you have any points or suggestions? With thanks
I every time spent my half an hour to read this weblog’s articles
daily along with a cup of coffee.
It’s going to be finish of mine day, however before finish I am
reading this wonderful paragraph to improve my knowledge.
Excellent beat ! I would like to apprentice at the same time as you amend your website, how could i subscribe for a weblog website?
The account helped me a appropriate deal. I have been tiny bit acquainted
of this your broadcast provided brilliant clear concept
hey there and thank you for your information – I have definitely picked up something
new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using
this site, as I experienced to reload the web site a lot of times previous to I could get it to load properly.
I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading
instances times will very frequently affect your placement in google and can damage your high-quality
score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my e-mail and can look
out for much more of your respective intriguing content. Make sure you update this again soon.
I know this if off topic but I’m looking into starting my own weblog and was curious what
all is required to get setup? I’m assuming having a blog like yours would cost a pretty penny?
I’m not very web savvy so I’m not 100% sure. Any recommendations or advice would be
greatly appreciated. Many thanks
Thanks to my father who told me on the topic of this web site, this website is actually awesome.
This text is worth everyone’s attention. How can I find out more?
Thanks for finally writing about > Report Shows How to
Reach Health Care Equity, Why It Matters – ruffeodrive < Loved it!
Its like you read my thoughts! You appear to
grasp so much approximately this, like you wrote the guide in it or something.
I think that you simply could do with some p.c.
to power the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is magnificent blog.
A great read. I’ll definitely be back.
Pretty! This has been an extremely wonderful article. Many thanks for supplying this info.
I don’t know whether it’s just me or if everybody else encountering problems with
your website. It appears as though some of the written text
within your posts are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment
and let me know if this is happening to them too?
This might be a problem with my web browser because I’ve had this happen previously.
Kudos
brillx казино
https://brillx-kazino.com
Brillx Казино – это не просто обычное место для игры, это настоящий храм удачи. Вас ждет множество возможностей, чтобы испытать азарт в его самой изысканной форме. Будь то блеск и огонь аппаратов или адреналин в жилах от ставок на деньги, наш сайт предоставляет все это и даже больше.Брилкс Казино понимает, что азартные игры – это не только о выигрыше, но и о самом процессе. Поэтому мы предлагаем возможность играть онлайн бесплатно. Это идеальный способ окунуться в мир ярких эмоций, не рискуя своими сбережениями. Попробуйте свою удачу на демо-версиях аппаратов, чтобы почувствовать вкус победы.