AMA Code Says
Apr 2012
Opinion 9.121 - Racial and Ethnic Health Care Disparities
Differences in treatment that are not directly attributable to variances in clinical needs or patient preferences constitute disparities in health care. Among racial and ethnic minority populations, such disparities may contribute to health outcomes that are considerably worse than those of majority populations. This represents a significant challenge for physicians who ethically are called upon to serve patients without regard to medically irrelevant personal characteristics. The following guidelines are intended to help reduce racial and ethnic disparities in health care.
(1) Physicians must strive to offer the same quality of care to all their patients irrespective of personal characteristics such as race or ethnicity. The provision of care should be customized to meet patient needs and preferences.
(2) Physicians must learn to recognize racial and ethnic health care disparities and should examine their own practices to ensure that inappropriate considerations do not affect clinical judgment.
(3) Physicians should work to eliminate biased behavior toward patients by other health care professionals and staff who come into contact with patients. Inappropriate discrimination toward any patient or group of patients must not be permitted.
(4) Participatory decision making should be encouraged with all patients. This requires trust, which in turn requires effective communication. Physicians should seek to gain greater understanding of cultural or ethnic characteristics that can influence patients’ health care decisions. Physicians should not rely upon stereotypes; they should customize care to meet the needs and preferences of individual patients.
(5) Physicians should recognize and take into account linguistic factors that affect patients’ understanding of medical information. In particular, language barriers should be minimized so that information is exchanged in a manner that both parties can understand.
(6) Increasing the diversity of the physician workforce may be an important step in reducing racial and ethnic health care disparities. Physicians should therefore participate in efforts to encourage diversity in the profession.
(7) Physicians should help increase awareness of health care disparities by engaging in open and broad discussions about the issue in medical school curricula, in medical journals, at professional conferences, and as part of professional peer review activities. Research should continue to investigate health care disparities, including the development of quality measures.
