Tackling racial disparities in the health outcomes entails radical shifts in the health system, professional practice, and the treatment of patients. These disparities can be attributed to racism in healthcare including differences in treatment based on structural factors such as healthcare access and systems, including disparities throughout different stages of decision-making in the healthcare system as well as socio-economic differences. To bring about a fair system in relation to healthcare, there is a need to ensure the following reforms are likely to be worked and enacted in single and institutional levels;
One important feature is increasing the availability of healthcare services in areas that lack adequate medical facilities. Some of the issues that affect many racial minorities include, lack of health insurance, lack of available transportation, and scarcity of providers. For this reason, the healthcare systems have to spend resources on such forms of access as the community clinics, telemedicine services, and mobile healthcare care centers for early detection and treatment of diseases when attending to the populace from lower classes.
Doctors, nurses, and other medical practitioners also have to be trained on how to eliminate implicit bias. As it has been proved that prejudice at the unconscious level influences the diagnosis and the recommendation for treatment. The measures that can facilitate better practice include mandatory bias training, diversity in the medical workforce, and culturally competent care, which will enable the providers to make sound decisions in generating the necessary improvement of disparities in the care amongst different races for patients.
Another important strategy which could be implemented would be to enhance the efficiency of healthcare data and the outcomes of such service. Hospitals and clinics should be able to keep records with regards to race differences in treatments and the results as a treatment for such disparities. The findings should be reported to the general public and make institutions responsible for such discriminations to change and eradicate them.
Lastly, Healthcare systems need to focus on increasing community involvement and patient-centric strategies. Efforts such as working with other health facilities, engaging the patients and the community on their rights, and advocating for preventive care measures will go a long way in improving the lives of the marginalized communities. Personal health information empowers the patients while working towards creating an unbiased healthcare system, thus starting the process of eliminating racism.
Conclusion
Achieving equal quality of medical treatment for all races requires overall changes and transformation at their level of system, and before enacting changes, active improvements must be ever ready by the communities. Thus, the steps that should be taken are the following: enhancing access to healthcare, combating the issues of implicit bias, increasing the data’s openness, and fortifying patient advocacy. Essential to vigorous social justice, a decision-making process in healthcare should not only consider and aim at providing health care to minority individuals and communities of color as effectively as to economically privileged patients.
