Quality Healthcare Access Is Not Equal For All Races & Minorities

One way to be proactive when it comes to your health is to plan ahead and be aware of what your body is telling you. This includes knowing what your normal numbers are such as blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and even blood sugar levels. As well as paying attention to your intuition when your body tells you something is not right. While many employers take steps to assure their employees health, it is everyone’s job.

At Methodist Health System in Dallas, they want to have the healthiest employees in the healthcare system by 2016, says Melissa Gerdes, MD, ABFM, FAAFP, Assistant Vice-President, and Chief Medical Officer of Outpatient Services and Accountable Care Organization Strategy.

“One would think that healthcare workers would be some of the healthiest people around,” Gerdes says. “Studies show that healthcare workers are actually not the healthiest due to high work demands. Methodist’s Employee Medical Home pilot is one path to reverse this trend.”

Beginning in July 2011, employees with a BMI over 35, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or certain other health problems were invited to participate in the pilot program. Currently, 352 employees are taking this path to better health.

However, while employees at this hospital are benefitting from proactive health awareness, according to a study on Every Day Health, patients visiting hospitals might have quite a different experience. The United States' so-called "worst" hospitals are home to a significantly larger pool of elderly, poor, and minority patients than are the nation's better quality and lower cost institutions.

“While elderly black Americans constitute nearly 7 percent of the patients in the country's 122 "best" hospitals, they make up 15 percent of patients among the nation's 178 "worst" healthcare facilities, Elderly Hispanics and Medicaid patients also appear to be over-represented in financially strapped hospitals that were found to have relatively poor health outcomes and higher fatality risks.” The site adds that, “In addition to doubling black patient populations in the worst institutions, the study authors also noted that while Hispanics accounted for just 1 percent of the patient pool in the best hospitals, they made up 4 percent in the worst.”

So, while hospitals like Methodist Health Systems do take care of their employees, not all hospitals taking care of their employees are looking out for the patients. Future plans at Methodist Health Systems include broadening the panel of participating physicians, adding pharmacy review, education on safety, and cost efficiency of therapies. How does this translate into one’s own life particularly for minority groups? Find a doctor and take the time to get to know your own internal health meter. This means that when the time comes and you do get sick, even without the best health coverage, you can still make sure that you know what to do in any situation.


Sources:
Melissa Gerdes, MD, ABFM, FAAFP, Assistant Vice President, and Chief Medical Officer of Outpatient Services and Accountable Care Organization Strategy
Methodist Health System
www.Everydayhealth.com