Examples Of Institutional Racism In Health Care

What is Racism? Racism is defined as the belief that one particular race is superior or inferior to another race and that all members of each race has predetermined social and moral traits due to their inborn biological characteristics. Racism as existed for more than 1000 years dated all the way back to the days of slavery and segregation. The most prevalent type of racism seen within the health care setting is institutional racism. Institutionalized racism is typically defined as biased access to goods, services, health insurance and opportunities determined by the person’s race (Peek, Odoms-Young, Quinn, Gorawara-Bhat, Wilson & Chin, 2010). The revelation of institutional racism within the health care industry affects not only the access to health care but also the quality of care received. The manifestation of this type of racism affects delivery of health care, financing and research, which results in the excessive closure of those facilities serving mainly the minority communities (Randall, 2010). Not only are the facilities serving the minorities being closed, the minorities visiting other facilities or “private hospitals” are being transferred due to being an unwanted patient. Due to the facilities believing in this type of racial practices,
This is just one example of how institutional racism affects the health of this race. This in turn puts the African American population at higher risk of being prone to becoming sicker with chronic diseases such as depression, high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and pulmonary disease when finally seeking care; and at this point the cost to treat and care for them is significantly higher than if care had been sought out earlier (Randall, 2010). That is if they even receive equal and adequate care from the attending