The Principal Investigator

If you’re an African American seeking emergency care in the United States, you can count on spending an extra hour waiting for a hospital bed than all other groups, according to the results of a national survey.

The findings, published in the February online issue of the journal Academic Emergency Medicine, are the latest to shine a light on the inequities in U.S. hospitals and point to a possible root of health disparities.

“What’s most concerning is the longer people stay in the [Emergency Department], the more like they are to die,” lead author Jesse Pines, of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a news release.

The researchers sifted through roughly 14,500 hospital admissions from the emergency departments at 408 U.S. hospitals between 2003 and 2005, to analyze the time patients spent in the emergency department before being transferred to a intensive care unit (ICU) bed or a non-ICU bed. The analyzed data set was from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, an annual assessment of the nation’s Emergency Departments. The data set represented estimates apply to approximately 339.4 million Emergency Department visits, according to the authors of the study.

The results revealed that wait times for black patients clock in at nearly six and one-quarter hours while non-black patients were in beds at just under 5 hours. Among the nation’s sickest patients waiting for ICU beds, fifty-seven percent of blacks waited more than 6 hours for an ICU bed in compared to 37 percent of non-blacks.

“Some of the greatest medical advancements of the last decade can be totally erased by spending a couple hours longer than necessary in the [Emergency Department],” study coauthor Judd Hollander, also of the University of Pennsylvania, said in a news release.

“Even prior to the economic downturn, some institutions had actually begun prioritizing hospital beds for insured patients having lucrative elective procedures. These measures will only worsen disparities for minorities,” he added.

Related links:

White House health forum must eliminate health disparities says USVI Delegate (Caribbean Net News, 3.6.09)

Ex-Foes of Health-Care Reform Emerge as Supporters (The Washington Post, 3.6.09)

Report finds racial disparities in access to hospital care (The Seattle Medium, 3.4.09)

The latest data on cancer among African Americans carries a message of hope and concern. Though African American death rates are down across all cancer types, a new report finds the population continues to be diagnosed with late-staged cancers more frequently and have lower survival rates compared to whites.

The findings, released today (2.18.09) are part of the American Cancer Society’s Cancer Facts & Figures for African Americans 2009-2010, a report published every two years.

The report finds the death rates of African American men have decreased faster than those of white men, which the authors attribute to “rapid declines in the death rates from prostate and lung cancers” among African American men. Though African American women have also demonstrated marked decreases in cancer death rates in recent years, slower declines in breast cancer and colorectal cancer death rates has kept their death rates from dropping below those of white women.

The report predicts that, in 2009, roughly 150,090 new cases of cancer will be diagnosed in African Americans, and experts report nearly 63,360 African Americans will die from cancer.

“African Americans have the highest rate of any racial and ethnic group in the U.S. for most cancers,” American Cancer Society chief medical officer Otis W. Brawley said in a news release. “The causes of these disparities are complex and likely reflect social and economic disparities, not biological differences.” Income, access to healthcare and education disparities may all contribute to African Americans seeking out care after cancer has become more invasive and more deadly.

“While it is discouraging that these differences still exist, we absolutely must face them and continue to enact policies to address them in order to save lives and reduce suffering from cancer among African Americans,” Brawley said.

Related links:

Racial gap in cancer deaths as wide as in 1981 (USA TODAY, 2.18.09)

Blacks still dying more of cancer than whites (Scientific American, 2.18.09)