Researchers had 33 hospital-based attending emergency medicine physicians, hospitalists and intensivists from Allegheny County, Pa. engage in realistic simulations where actors portrayed dying black and white patients. In the study, physicians were not aware of what the trial was testing.
The Journal of Pain and Symptom Management published the findings.
Here are five key points:
1. Researchers say the findings may be a reason blacks are more likely to ask for extraordinary life-sustaining measures and report worse communication with their physicians.
2. The findings showed physicians averaged 7 percent lower scores for their nonverbal interactions with the black patients than with the white patients.
3. The physicians were more likely to stand right at the white patients’ bedsides and touch them in a sympathetic manner.
4.”Although we found that physicians said the same things to their black and white patients, communication is not just the spoken word. It also involves nonverbal cues, such as eye contact, body positioning and touch,” Senior author Amber Barnato, MD, said. “Poor nonverbal communication — something the physician may not even be aware he or she is doing — could explain why many black patients perceive discrimination in the healthcare setting.”
5. American Cancer Society funded the study.
More healthcare news:
Tenet signs new, 4-year agreement with Aetna; Surgery Partners appoints Brent Turner to board of directors & more — 4 notes on ASC companies
Self-insured employers: 6 key thoughts on new opportunities for ASCs
Patient movement can interfere with femto laser assisted cataract surgery — 5 takeaways
