Racism among 'open secrets' in U.S. medicine

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When I blogged a week ago about a nurse's racial discrimination lawsuit against Hurley Medical Center in Michigan, my focus was on the outrageous behavior of a racist man and the hospital's enabling of that behavior.

This story is much bigger than one case. Patients, and family members of patients, picking and choosing caregivers based on race is a systemic problem in America.

Two of my closest family members have worked as caregivers in nursing homes. Both have been pressured to stay away from a patient because the patient or family members objected to having a person of color involved in caregiving.

As part of its coverage of the Hurley Medical Center discrimination lawsuit, The Associated Press reported Friday that racial discrimination against caregivers is one of U.S. medicine's "open secrets." The AP reported the following:
- The American Medical Association's ethics code bars doctors from refusing to treat people based on race, gender and other criteria, but there are no specific policies for handling race-based requests from patients.
- In 2010, a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision held that the federal Civil Rights Act prohibits nursing homes from making staffing decisions for nursing assistants based on residents' racial preferences. The ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by a black nursing assistant who sued her employer for racial discrimination.
- In a federal lawsuit filed in 2005, three black employees of a hospital near Philadelphia claimed they were prevented from treating a pregnant white woman by her male partner, who was a member of a white supremacist group. The man used a racial slur when forbidding any care by any African-Americans. The complaint alleged supervisors honored the man's request. The case was settled confidentially before going to trial.
- A 2007 study examined how physicians respond to patients' requests to be assigned caregivers of the same gender, race or religion. The survey of emergency physicians found patients often make such requests, and they are routinely accommodated.

This form of discrimination shows how far America remains from anything approaching racial harmony.

Nurses and other medical caregivers not only help our loved ones at their greatest times of need but also provide difficult and unpleasant services even family members are reluctant to do. They literally wipe our loved ones' asses.

Racism remains so ingrained in American society that caregivers are turned away from suffering patients based on skin color. It's undeniable proof that racism is a persistent problem in U.S. culture.