Posted on 05/15/2012 7:15:11 AM PDT by pabianice
Summary: Blacks receive inferior treatment for traumatic injuries (esp. gun shots wounds) than those of other races. They're survival rate and post-trauma care is inferior. However, causes for this racist medical outcome are unclear.
(Excerpt) Read more at viewer.zmags.com ...
I read the summary but have not read the paper itself.
It seems, from reading the summary, that almost all of the recorded variables are adjusted- severity, gun use, insurance, age and so forth.
Given that, perhaps if they decided to weight these factors differently, they’d get a different outcome.
As for racial issues, I am under the impression that young black males get significantly more gunshot trauma than other groups (just my impression, no stats). Given that, it would follow that hospitals in areas where there is lots of gun trauma to black kids would have more practice dealing with the problem so might be expected to do better than some rural hospital.
In the hayday of New York City’s crime rate (the 70s and 80s), Bellevue Hospital EMS was considered the very best of trauma units. So I believe your theory holds water.
It seems like that might cause issues in some cases.
No. But if you go to the EMS part of the Student Doctor Network, you will find out the answer to this study.
The inner city folks tend to reject treatment or not follow treatment when able to walk out. That follows because the blurb said that severe trauma had similar outcomes.
So if less than severe trauma which is trauma that requires particpation and agreement on the part of the patient has a poor outcome perhaps the responsibility is in the hands of the patients who reject ro do not follow treatment protocols, like taking provided antibiotics, or attending followup appointments.
“They’re survival rate and post-trauma care is inferior.” They’re is a contraction of “they are”, making the sentence read: They are survival rate.........
That experience you mention may also be why outcomes could be different. That experience can involve long and hurried shifts. Many years ago I had friends that worked in emergency rooms and they pointed out that weekends were pandemonium as shooting and stabbing victims were brought in unending streams. Under those circumstances one would expect different outcomes.
Sounds like bullsh#t! You either provide trauma care or you don’t. Trauma centers are about patient survival. You, simply, can’t get better treatment than in most urban trauma centers. In fact, between wars, some military doctors were trained in urban trauma centers (because, where else could one gain vast experience in wound care).
Their survival rate and post-trauma care are inferior?
Where are the studies or factual statistics that confirm this?
I also would like to see how they adjusted things like "severity," and how "insurance" would affect ER care of something like a gunshot.
As a side note, a friend of mine was a Navy anesthesiologist in San Diego. He used to take his interns up to LA to practice on gunshot wounds.
Stop the gang-bangin and there will be no need for treating gunshots. (but that is the life style they choose, right?)
“As for racial issues, I am under the impression that young black males get significantly more gunshot trauma than other groups”
We always called them members of the Knife and Gun Club as we were operating on them.
In Houston it is Ben Taub Hospital.
“Kenneth Maddox, a trauma surgeon named Best Doctor in America five times, is the head of the trauma department. With 586 licensed beds, it is one of the busiest trauma centers in the United States, caring for over 106,000 emergency patients during its last fiscal year (March 1, 2010 to February 28, 2011)”
Since they want to make this a race issue, I guess the inferior treatment is because they go to black doctors to keep the money in the “family”
I had a doctor up until about two years ago who interned at Bellevue during those years. She is the only doctor I’ve ever known who I thought was a genuis.
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